Europe South Asia Asia Pacific Americas Middle East Africa BBC Homepage World Service Education
BBC Homepagelow graphics version | feedback | help
BBC News Online
 You are in: UK: Wales
Front Page 
World 
UK 
Northern Ireland 
Scotland 
Wales 
UK Politics 
Business 
Sci/Tech 
Health 
Education 
Sport 
Entertainment 
Talking Point 
In Depth 
AudioVideo 
Friday, 31 December, 1999, 08:28 GMT
Probe into nuclear station blunder

Wylfa nuclear power station Wylfa is a magnox type nuclear power station


An inquiry is being carried out into a blunder at a north Wales nuclear power station.

It happened after refuelling had taken place on a reactor at Wylfa in Anglesey.

Two plugs had to be removed from the top of the charge chute in a standpipe through which fuel is fed.

Earlier this month the fuelling machine was moved off a reactor without the lower plug having been put back in the chute.

This was not fully in accordance with the reactor safety case, which requires both plugs to be in place, according to British Nuclear Fuels.

Investigation under way

An investigation is being carried out but the episode was level 0 in the international nuclear event scale.

Wylfa station operates magnox type reactors and is owned by Magnox Electric.

The name magnox is derived from the magnesium alloy canisters which contain the nuclear fuel.

Wylfa power station is scheduled to close in 2004.

Search BBC News Online

Advanced search options
Launch console
BBC RADIO NEWS
BBC ONE TV NEWS
WORLD NEWS SUMMARY
PROGRAMMES GUIDE

Internet links:

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Links to other Wales stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Wales stories