Explosion at French Nuclear Waste Site Kills 1, Injures 4

A worker was killed and four people were injured at EDF’s Centraco site near the Marcoule nuclear research center in Codolet, Southeast France, on Monday when a furnace dedicated to melting scrap metal from nuclear plants exploded and triggered a fire.

France’s ASN (L’Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire) nuclear safety watchdog declared the incident over on Monday afternoon, but it has launched an inquiry, saying it would conduct detailed inspections in collaboration with the plant’s owner Socodei, an EDF subsidiary. The agency said the building that housed the furnace was not badly damaged and that no trace of radiation was found in the vicinity of the plant. 

No evacuations were ordered in Codolet, which is located on the River Rhone, near the southern city of Orange. ASN said the Centraco facility was dedicated to melting low to very low radioactive metallic waste, such as components, filters and clothing from power plants, universities, research sites, and hospitals, but all radioactivity was contained inside the building. The furnace that exploded was used to melt scrap metal structural components, pumps, valves and tools made of stainless steel or carbon steel.

ASN head Jean-Christophe Niel was quoted by Bloomberg today as saying that the regulator had previously uncovered safety lapses at the 1999-built Centraco site and investigations would show whether these were to blame for the accident. ASN had said in a 2010 annual report that it prompted Socodei for an action plan to improve safety in 2008 and that the situation had improved since then at the site.

France draws about 75% of its electricity from nuclear power. The accident occurred just three days before EDF was due to report to ANS on the ability of its 58 plants to withstand emergencies.

Sources: POWERnews, ANS, EDF, Bloomberg