A question mark hangs over the future of about 230 jobs at the nuclear decommissioning business UKAEA after the Government announced that it was looking to sell the company.

The move means that employees of the firm, based at Chilton, near Harwell, will see their jobs transferred to the private sector towards the end of 2009 when the Government expects to complete the sale.

But a spokesman for bankers Greenhill, which is managing the sale, said: “There is a resurgence of interest in the nuclear business and we expect the jobs to be safe at UKAEA.”

He added that the Government expected first round bids, probably from major engineering firms, by May 11.

He added: “UKAEA is owned by the Atomic Energy Energy Authority. Only the nuclear decommissioning business is being sold off.

“The fusion business at Harwell, and the Science Park there, will remain in public ownership — as will the sites at Harwell, Dounreay and Winfrith ,which are currently managed by UKAEA but owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.”

He added that one reason for the sale was that the law requires the Government to put up nuclear contracts to tender, and it could not be seen to be tendering for its own contracts at sites it owned itself.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was originally set up in Harwell in 1948. The environmental consultancy arm of the business, AEA Technology, which now employs about 1,000 people, became a private company in 1999.

Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Lady Judge, said: “The proposed sale will provide UKAEA Ltd with a new ownership structure to help deliver its strategic plans and greater commercial focus on its operations.”

Business secretary Peter Mandelson added: “As the UK moves towards an era of nuclear new build, this sale will increase efficiency, competition and value for money for the taxpayer in the decommissioning and clean up work of old nuclear power stations.”