Explosion at French Nuclear-Waste Plant Leaves One Dead, 4 Hurt
September 12th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
An explosion at a nuclear-waste plant in the south of France left one person dead and four people injured, according to Electricite de France, which operates the site.
EDF said there was no radioactive or chemical leak at the plant at Marcoule in Le Gard. The fire at a furnace at the plant is under control, said Carole Trivi, a spokeswoman for the Paris-based company.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko- Morizet confirmed that there has been an explosion and said that the minister will visit the site.
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More: BBC:
One person has been killed and four injured, one seriously, by a blast at the Marcoule nuclear site in France.
There was no risk of a radioactive leak after the blast, caused by a fire near a furnace in the Centraco radioactive waste storage site, said officials.
The plant’s owner, national electricity provider EDF, said it had been “an industrial accident, not a nuclear accident”.
There are no nuclear reactors at the southern French site.
The explosion hit the area at 11:45 local time (09:45 GMT).
“For the time being nothing has made it outside,” said a spokesman for France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
The Centraco treatment centre belongs to a subsidiary of EDF. It produces MOX fuel, which recycles plutonium from nuclear weapons.
