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French nuclear plant has uranium leak
Uranium-bearing liquid has leaked from a broken underground pipe at a nuclear site in southeastern France, the national nuclear safety authority said today. It was the second leak discovered at a French site this month.
Experts are working to determine how much leaked uranium is present at nuclear company Areva’s plant in the town of Romans-sur-Isere, the Nuclear Safety Authority said in a statement. Specialists are to work to clean up the site.
The communique said the pipe is believed to have ruptured several years ago. It added that the pipe “was not in line with the applicable regulations, which require shock resistance ability sufficient to avoid rupture.”
Areva spokesman Charles Hufnagel said the leak of lightly enriched uranium did not spread outside the site and had “absolutely no impact on the environment.” He said the factory hoped the leak would be classified as a level 1 problem — the most minor of seven possible rankings.
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