Britian losing race to build nuclear plants

Alistair Smith, director of nuclear services at US engineer Parsons Brinckerhoff, said the the number of countries waiting for reactors from suppliers was 'growing rapidly.'

'Other countries are getting ahead of the UK,' Building magazine quoted him as saying. 'The Middle East wants to build and South Africa is on the verge of ordering 10 stations. The longer the UK dithers, the further back in the queue it gets.'

Prime minister Gordon Brown wants a minimum of eight plants built in the next 15 years, but plans have been held up because the government has not yet sold its 35% stake in nuclear power company British Energy. The firm owns eight of the UK's 10 nuclear sites where the new plants are expected to be built.

Things are looking up for when the work does arrive, however. According to Lord O'Neill, head of the Nuclear Industry Association, work in the sector could offset lack of work elsewhere in the industry.

'We still don't have enough people to do the work,' he said. 'There is as much work in decommissioning and cleaning up as there is in new build. And it could be that the downturn in the building industry will liberate people to do work in nuclear.'

He pointed to work at Sellafield, which could last up to 17 years, and is one of several contracts to decommission old plants and build new ones.