BBC News Online: UK: Wales

Licence hurdle for nuclear stations

British Nuclear Fuels Limited has taken over the running of the Magnox reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey and Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd, which is being decommissioned.

BNFL will have to satisfy the Environment Agency before they are given licences to continue producing electricity.

The transfer of ownership requires the new licences.

The government has insisted that gaseous and liquid emissions from nuclear power stations require a specific licence from the Environment Agency.

As part of their statutory requirement the agency will be holding public meetings in both the Trawsfynydd and Wylfa areas to gauge public feeling regarding emissions.

The meetings are expected to be held in June.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have welcomed the opportunity to voice opinions regarding emissions.

Two reactors at Wylfa had to be shut down in January following after a refuelling operation went wrong.

Radioactive contamination

Both reactors were out of action for several days.

Last June, six workers at Trawsfynydd suffered internal radioactive contamination while cleaning a cooling pond.

Irradiated fuel was formerly stored in the area.

Decommissioning began at Trawsfynydd in 1993 but is likely to take several decades to complete.

Anglesey's Wylfa station is expected to stop producing electricity in the next 15 years.

Both Wylfa and Trawsfynydd were previously operated by Magnox Electric.