The warning comes after the BNFL board announced it was putting up for sale Westinghouse, its nuclear design and construction arm, probably to an American buyer.

Prospect says that decision could be extremely bad news for the 1,400 staff employed by Westinghouse at the BNFL Springfields site, near Preston, Lancashire, where it maintains a reactor fuel production facility.

Because their work is based on a Westinghouse design, any sale to an American owner could result in closure of the Springfields facility, said Mike Graham, Prospect National Secretary for the North West.

"Assuming an American buyer takes possession of Westinghouse, which has its own fuel production facilities in the US, they may view Springfields as being surplus to requirements and ripe for asset-stripping," said Graham. "That would mean skilled engineers and scientists being thrown on the scrapheap and a major blow to the science base."

Graham accused the Government of selling-off ‘the Crown Jewels of the nuclear industry’ and called on MPs in the North West to register their objections to the sale of Westinghouse with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee.

He said: "An enquiry should be launched immediately into why six years ago Government believed owning Westinghouse was central to its vision for BNFL, but today it is peripheral and put up for sale.

"Nothing has changed except that nuclear new-build is now top of the agenda for fighting carbon emissions. Westinghouse would provide the UK with a golden opportunity to grab market share and earn a huge return for the British taxpayer. Instead that long-term vision has been sacrificed to make a quick buck for the Treasury.

"This Government is focussing on risk rather than opportunity. Instead of worrying that it might not win contracts in China it should be doing everything possible to secure them. I fear the staff at Springfields will be first to pay the price for the Government’s timidity."