Explosion at French Nuclear Site 'Contained'

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--French energy giant Electricite de France (EPA:EDF) (Paris), has confirmed that an explosion and fire at one of its nuclear sites in the south of France did not result in the leaking of radioactive waste.

The explosion occurred yesterday morning at the Centraco (Centre for treatment and conditioning of low level radioactive waste) nuclear waste processing plant, located on the site of the Marcoule nuclear power plant, killing one worker and injuring four others. The blast happened at a furnace being used to melt low and very low-level radioactive metallic waste, and the resulting fire was brought under control an hour and a half later.

"The accident at a furnace for melting scrap was brought under control at 1:06 p.m. [yesterday] by the response teams from the factory," said EDF in a statement. "There were no chemical or radioactive releases and there is no risk of further contamination. The room where the furnace is located is clean, and the two furnaces at the plant have been stopped."

The accident comes just a fortnight after France, the largest nuclear power user in Europe, called for tougher nuclear laws to be implemented by every country in the world that uses nuclear energy. French Prime Minister François Fillon called on the United Nation's nuclear body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to extend the stress tests that all European nuclear reactors underwent in the last five months to the rest of the world. He also called for the creation of an international emergency task force, capable of reacting rapidly to any nuclear emergency, regardless of location. For additional information, see August 31, 2011, article - France Pushes for Tougher Nuclear Rules.

Nuclear power safety and the associated business of disposing of nuclear waste are currently very sensitive topics in Europe, following the March disaster at the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Even though yesterday's explosion occurred at a reprocessing site where there are no active nuclear reactors, the accident has pushed nuclear safety back into the public and political spotlight. EDF confirmed that an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the explosion.

France's nuclear safety authority, ASN, commented: "The explosion of a furnace dedicated for the melting of the metallic radioactive waste triggered a fire that ended at 13h00. The building where the explosion occurred was not damaged. The injured people did not suffer from any radiological contamination and all measures conducted by the licensee outside of the building have shown no trace of radioactive contamination".

The furnace, which was commissioned 1999, melts low-level radioactive metals such as valves, pumps and tools, which are then pressed into ingots, reducing their size by 90%.

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