British Energy to train new recruits in Navy camp

LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Britain's next generation of nuclear power workers will be sent to a military training camp for submarine engineers, British Energy (BGY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday.

The company, which runs most of Britain's existing nuclear power plants and hopes to help build new ones, has signed a 10 million pound ($19.64 million), seven-year contract with Flagship Training to train apprentices at HMS Sultan in Hampshire from September.

Gordon Brown's Labour government wants private sector companies to build a new generation of nuclear power plants to replace British Energy's ageing reactors and the producer of about one fifth of the country's electricity needs more qualified staff to do it.

Sending new recruits to Flagship, the Royal Navy's training partner, will exploit the similarities between commercial nuclear power plants and their submarine military cousins.

"Ships' propulsion units and generators are like self-contained power stations and submarines contain their own nuclear reactor," said David Barber, British Energy's head of technical training.

"It provides the perfect training ground."

British Energy recruits around 50 apprentices a year, who will spend about two years in the Flagship programme and 2-3 years further training at the company's own power plants.

Utilities across Europe are stalking British Energy as the government considers selling its 35 percent stake.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren)