Sellafield boss warns on nuclear clean-up

Falling revenues from waste reprocessing have led to a financial black hole for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The government body given the job of cleaning up Britain's old nuclear power stations has warned that taxpayers will have to help plug a looming multimillion-pound gap in its finances left by shrinking revenues.

David Peattie, chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, said revenues would fall more than 10% annually in coming years due to the end of an era of nuclear waste reprocessing. One plant ceased operations in November and another will stop in two years.