A CONSORTIUM of bungling privateers in charge of cleaning up the mess left by Britain’s first nuclear power station and reprocessing plant was sacked yesterday.

Workers at the Sellafield site in Cumbria say that two years ago they warned that the clean-up project was in trouble — but were ignored.

General union GMB says billions of pounds in taxpayers’ cash has been wasted and industrial action is being considered.

The government appointed a consortium in 2008 to clean up Sellafield, an operation expected to take 17 years.

Costs have increased annually by hundreds of millions of pounds. The contract now stands at £9 billion.

The consortium, Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), involves US engineering group URS, British firm Amec and French energy firm Areva and employs 10,000 workers.

Six years into the contract the government has now terminated it and is handing it to the publicly owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

GMB national officer Gary Smith said: “We believe NDA wanted to terminate the contract in 2013 following a report it commissioned, but was overruled by ministers.

“Over £2bn has been spent with NMP since they extended the contract. Who is going to be held to account for extending the contract? GMB members, the community and taxpayers need to know.”

Energy Secretary Ed Davey was yesterday accused of a “frantic U-turn” over the contract to and urged to stop playing “inter-coalition games.”

Shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex told MPs during an urgent question on the issue that it was time the Lib Dem frontbencher “got a grip” and whipped his “dysfunctional and misfiring” department into shape.

GMB has called a mass meeting of members on Friday when industrial action will be considered.

Mr Smith said: “We will be seeking views on industrial action. Our members have been at the sharp end of NMP’s mismanagement and we are sick to the back teeth of government’s failure to put a coherent strategy for the future of Sellafield on the table.”