An amateur photographer who caused a decommissioned nuclear power station to be put on lockdown has been jailed for six months. Convicted robber Nicolas Bates, 29, scaled a 6ft-high fence at Trawsfynydd in Snowdonia, which shut down in 1991. Some 100 staff were put on lockdown by the security breach on 16 March. Bates pleaded guilty at Caernarfon Magistrates’ Court to trespassing on a protected site, possessing knives and cannabis and motoring offences. District judge Gwyn Jones told him: “Basic commonsense and a very elementary knowledge of physics suggests nuclear sites are dangerous places and there is still a potential risk of harm from radiation.” Bates, of Faseman Avenue, Coventry, was spotted by a contractor who noticed he was not wearing a hard hat or hi-vis clothing in a restricted area, the court heard. He claimed he carried out research on Wikipedia and was taking photos of what, he thought, was a derelict site.
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