Britain says it is looking at sale of stake in Urenco

The British government said on Tuesday that it was continuing to explore the sale of its one-third stake in British-based uranium enrichment specialist Urenco.

"Work is continuing ... on a possible sale but no final decision has been made on the future of the government's one-third stake in Urenco," said a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

"There is a market for the stake but any sale is complicated because of safety, security and non-proliferation concerns as well as agreement from the other shareholders and their respective governments (Netherlands and Germany)."

Britain, Germany and the Netherlands each hold one-third stakes in the nuclear fuel supplies group.

The Dutch government said meanwhile that it was not seeking to sell its holding but indicated that German energy companies E.ON and RWE were mulling the sale of their 33-percent stake.

"The Dutch state does not want to sell its holding in Urenco," a spokewoman for the economics ministry told AFP, adding that the government would prefer that "most of Urenco remain publicly-owned".

But she added that "we know that they (E.ON and RWE) have begun a market study ... to look for a potential buyer".

However, when contacted by AFP, both E.ON and RWE declined to comment on the matter.

burs-mg/rfj/hd