ANGRY union staff today claimed that budget cuts could cost more than 100 jobs at a former nuclear site in Dorset.

The cuts - revealed by the National Decommission-ing Authority - would see the current financial year's £85 million funding for Winfrith and sister nuclear site Harwell in Oxfordshire slashed to just £60 million for both 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

Winfrith's Prospect union representative Austin Kinnane said: "Morale is absolutely rock bottom and I can't express strongly enough how people feel.

"These cuts will impact on Winfrith with a reduction in current staff of 73 per cent. There are 152 staff on site and 110 could lose their jobs over the next couple of months.

"It means we have to produce a programme to run the site down to a state we call care and maintenance.

"If we had flat funding of £85 million for the next two years we would be able to continue and gradually wind it down and there would only be a need for voluntary redundancies."

He added that the job loss distraction could also hit safety at the site.

Mr Kinnane said: "Everyone is 100 per cent committed to safety but our point is that, with the best will in the world, these are huge distractions for people to continue in a safe environment. With all this going on it's an accident waiting to happen."

Mr Kinnane stressed that staff knew budget cuts would hit jobs but thought there would be flat funding of £85 million per year which would have let decommissioning continue slowly with the situation tackled through voluntary redundancies.

He said the job cuts could affect some of the 200 contractors on site as well.

The news comes in a week when the Government announced a new generation of nuclear power plants.

The original steam-generating heavy water reactor, which produced enough electricity to power Bournemouth, was shut down in 1990 some 26 years after it was built. The UKAEA had planned to completely decommission the site by 2018.

UKAEA chief executive Norman Harrison said the NDA could not finalise its funding allocations until the Government finished its comprehensive spending review which includes funding to the NDA.

He added: "The exact implications of funding reductions for jobs cannot yet be fully defined but current estimates suggest that a reduction to £60 million could represent the loss of up to 200 UKAEA jobs at these sites.

"If job losses occur, suitable arrangements to resolve the surplus will be discussed and agreed in accordance with UKAEA procedures.

"It is to the credit of all staff that we continue to deliver our programme of work to the NDA safely and to time and cost. Throughout these uncertainties, UKAEA's priority will be to maintain high standards of safety in all our activities."