DECOMMISSIONING at Berkeley power station is grinding to a halt indefinitely.

Bosses at the plant said a safety review for Berkeley was currently being written, which would see the site mothballed until at least 2019.

Site manager Jim Crocker said: "Periodic Site Safety Review is a robust technical document that has to assure the regulator that you can continue to maintain the site.

"It has to satisfy the statutory regulations for the next 10 years. There will be no decommissioning during the period for the PSSR."

Mr Crocker did say, however, that Berkeley's two reactors would go into a stage of care and maintenance within the next two years but that the footprint of the licensed site would not be reduced until 2083.

At present the National Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has no national strategy for handling low level waste and the organisation is yet to decide how to clear the graphite found in reactor cores, crucial for final site clearance.

There have also been rumours of large staff reductions at the site but these remain unconfirmed.

Mr Crocker said: "I am trying to take care of the people as best I can and we are talking about how we are going to take the site forward in the current economic situation."

The NDA has blamed Berkeley's sudden standstill on spending priorities at more hazardous sites.

Dave Warner, NDA site programmes manager at Berkeley, said: "We've got more work and not necessarily the budget to go with it. We would like to decommission all the sites in 25 years but we know that isn't affordable or feasible."

However, Mr Warner has said there could be some hope for Berkeley's decommissioning.

He added: "No doubt the regulator will want to see the arrangements for leaving Berkeley another 10 years.

"And that will come at a cost and that could be a financial driver to push the NDA on and get the sites cleaned up."