A businessman has vowed not to sell land to a firm hoping to store nuclear waste in one of Oxfordshire's most picturesque villages.

Reviss Services, a partly Russian-owned off-shoot of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, is currently based at Harwell Laboratory and has submitted a planning application to seal radioactive material in a state-of-the-art store at Stanford in the Vale, near Wantage. As reported in yesterday's Oxford Mail, the proposed site for the controversial development is the White Horse Business Park but the owner says the scheme will no longer go ahead because the sale offer has been with- drawn.

John Smith, part-owner of the business park, said he backed out after discovering the full extent of Reviss Services' plans.

The company wants to seal radioactive material cobalt, ceasium and iridium in steel rods then pack it in lead-lined drums stored in water. The waste would then be buried inside a concrete-lined tank inside a protective building.

Mr Smith said: "We have withdrawn our sale offer and that decision is final.

"Some people will be concerned that they will come back and double their offer but we wouldn't even sell the land for 10m because we don't think the development is appropriate for the area," he added.