About 150 workers were moved from a nuclear power station in north Wales after a fire broke out yesterday. But a spokesman for BNFL claimed the fire was not serious and denied there were any radioactive implications.
The blaze is believed to have been caused by a spark at British Nuclear Fuels' Trawsfynydd Magnox plant. Firefighters were called to the power station, which is being decommissioned.
"As a routine procedure we dispatched five fire engines but we pinpointed the blaze in a cable race within the basement area and had it quickly under control," a north Wales fire brigade spokesman said.
The evacuation was "a routine precaution" and no members of the public were ever in any danger, he added. "This was classed as an on-site incident rather than a nuclear incident."
A spokesman for BNFL said: "Workmen were carrying out work on a cable duct between the two reactor halls, which are being decommissioned.
"A stray spark got loose and ended up coming into contact with one of the cables. There was some thick black smoke but it was not a serious fire and the fire brigade was called out as a standard procedure. There were no casualties and no radioactive material was involved." Meanwhile, the Lithuanian parliament has set a January 1st, 2005, deadline for completing preparations to close one of two reactors at a nuclear power plant inherited from the Soviet Union. The EU has pressed Vilnius to close the Ignalina plant, built in the 1980s to the same design as Ukraine's Chernobyl plant.
And in Taipai, Taiwan's incoming economic minister has called for the suspension of bidding for contracts in a $5.6 billion nuclear plant pending a decision on whether the project should be scrapped.