UK plutonium-processing plant to close

A British nuclear agency says the country's only plutonium-processing plant will be closed in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said on Wednesday the "risk profile" of its Sellafield mixed oxide fuel plant had changed following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

The northern England plant, which employs more than 600 workers, recycles spent nuclear fuel and only had Japanese customers.

Union leaders say the closure is shortsighted, while environmental campaigners say the plant's closure highlights what they describe as the folly of the country's nuclear industry.

The recycled nuclear fuel, referred to as MOX, was also used at the Fukushima plant.