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100 French workers contaminated by radiative elements

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-24 10:30

PARIS  -- None of the 100 workers contaminated with radiation in an accident at the Tricastin nuclear power plant in southern France Wednesday has suffered negative health effects, local media reported.

Alein Peckre, manager of the nuclear plant, said some radiation powder accidentally leaked from a pipeline inside a building near the No. 4 reactor as it was being checked Wednesday morning.

Some 97 staff members of France's national power company and 32 workers at the nuclear station, who were at the site and feared they had been affected by nuclear materials, were immediately sent to hospital for health checks.

Stephanie Biabaut, the nuclear station's media director, said checks showed 100 of them were slightly affected by nuclear radiation, but their health was not harmed.

The cause of the accident is being investigated, and initial findings showed the environment has not been polluted by the leakage, she added.

The nuclear station reported the incident to the country's nuclear safety bureau, which listed it as an incident of zero-level, the lowest on the spectrum of eight levels.

This is the fourth nuclear safety incident in France over the past 16 days.

On July 7, 75 kg of non-enriched uranium leaked into two rivers near the Tricastin power station, while liquid containing uranium leaked in Drome province on July 17.

One day later, 15 French workers were exposed to low-level nuclear radiation at Saint-Alban nuclear station in Iser province, but their health was not affected.