THE leading manufacturing union has accused the nuclear industry of engineering a “stitch-up” with three American private contractors over the sale of Magnox nuclear reactor sites.

Amicus, which represents thousands of workers in the electricity and nuclear industries, said that a sale would favour industry executives and three United States-based contractors that are the existing partners on the sites in question.

The union has written to Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, asking him to jettison the latest proposal from British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), under which the Magnox sites would be put up for sale for £350 million.

The letter, which urges Mr Darling to dismiss the chairmen and chief executives of BNFL and the NDA, says “your advisers seem to be yet again ignoring another ‘stitch up’ driven by the personal financial gain and self-interest of BNFL board members and British Nuclear Group’s [BNG’s] executive team members”.

The warning from Amicus comes as Mr Darling prepares to meet MPs, companies and other investors to hear their concerns about the break-up of the state-owned nuclear group. The union said that the Government was being forced to agree a sale that favoured BNG’s executives and the American companies that have partnership agreements with BNG: Fluor, in the North; and Energy Solutions and Jacobs Engineering Group, in the South.

“The sale of the Magnox business is wrong. Management should be instructed to put it out to competition,” Doug Rooney, of Amicus, told The Times. “My concern is that there will be a stitch-up between the parties. They are looking to satisfy the self-interest of managers who have demonstrated that they are inept.” Amicus argues that a sale, rather than competition for contracts for the sites, would also jeopardise the domestic nuclear industry. The union said that whoever won the contract to decommission the Magnox reactors would be in pole position to join a consortium to build new power stations on those sites.

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