Radioactive cooling fluid leaked at a French nuclear reactor Thursday following two small fires, but the spillage was safely collected in special tanks, officials said.
A reactor at the power plant in Penly on the English Channel near the port of Dieppe shut down automatically after two small fires broke out Thursday, the plant's operator EDF said.
Firefighters easily extinguished the blazes but a cooling pump was damaged, in turn causing a joint to leak radioactive water into collection tanks located inside the reactor building, EDF said.
The reactor continued to be cooled properly and teams were working to lower the water pressure, the company said.
EDF said the installation was secure, no one was injured, and there were "no consequences for the environment".
It was not clear what caused the fires but the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said firefighters had found small pools of burning oil but quickly extinguished the flames.
"These were pools of a few dozen square centimetres," said agency spokeswoman Evangelia Petit, adding the authority would make an inspection of the site Friday.
The ASN said in a statement that it had provisionally put the event at level 1 on the international INES scale, which classifies nuclear accidents at between 1 ("irregularity") and 7 ("major incident").
The agency said it was lifting the crisis situation that had been put in place on Thursday evening.
France generates 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and the future of the industry has become an issue in campaigns for the presidential election to be held in April and May.
France, the world's most nuclear-dependent country, operates 58 reactors and has been a leading international proponent of atomic energy.
But the country's reliance on nuclear power has been called into question since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which prompted Germany to announce plans to shut all of its reactors by the end of 2022. (AFP)
<관련 한글 기사>
佛원자력발전소 화재사고! 가동중단
프랑스 북부 노르망디의 팡리에 있는 원자력발전 소 원자로가 5일(현지시간) 화재로 셧다운(가동중단)됐다고 원전 운용사 EDF가 밝혔 다.
EDF는 이날 팡리 원전에서 화재경보가 울리고 나서 제2호 원자로가 자동으로 가 동을 멈췄다고 전했다.
EDF는 성명을 통해 소방대원들이 출동해 원자로 냉각시스템의 펌프에서 유출된 오일에 붙은 2곳의 불길을 껐다고 발표했다.
불은 금방 진화됐으나 화재로 원자로 내 냉각펌프가 손상되면서 냉각수가 유출됐다.
그러나 EDF는 유출된 냉각수가 원자로 건물 내의 수집 탱크에서 안전하게 처리됐으며, 이번 사고로 인명피해가 없고 환경에도 아무런 위협을 주지 않는다고 밝혔 다.
EDF는 또 긴급점검팀이 원전에 진입해 시설물을 점검한 결과 추가 화재는 없는 것으로 확인됐다고 덧붙였다.
한편, 프랑스는 세계에서 원자력 의존도가 가장 높은 나라로, 현재 58개의 원자로가 가동 중이며 전력의 75％를 원자력으로 충당하고 있다.
그러나 지난해 일본의 후쿠시마 원전사고가 발생한 이후 프랑스에서는 원전에 대한 의문이 제기되고 있다. (연합뉴스)
