LONDON: British nuclear plant Sellafield closed as a precaution on Friday due to bad weather including snow and high winds, its operator said in a statement.

Staff were being sent home from the reprocessing and waste storage facility in northwest England but there was no evidence of any safety issues, it said.

"In response to the current and predicted adverse weather conditions on and round the Sellafield site, as a precaution, a site incident has been declared and the plants have been moved safely to a controlled, shut down state," it said.

Sellafield Ltd added: "We have implemented a phased, early release of staff from the site; this is being carried out in a safe, controlled manner.

"There is no reason to believe that there will be any off-site nuclear, environmental or conventional safety issues associated with the incident."

Britain's national weather service said it was very windy around Sellafield with a mixture of rain, sleet and snow.

Sellafield was home to the world's first commercial nuclear power station, but it stopped generating electricity in 2003.

The site is currently used for the reprocessing of spent fuel and nuclear waste storge.