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Explosion at Flamanville nuclear plant in western France Explosion at Flamanville nuclear plant in northern France
(35 minutes later)
An explosion has occurred at EDF’s Flamanville nuclear plant in France but there is no nuclear risk, a local government official said. An explosion has occurred at EDF’s Flamanville nuclear plant in northern France, causing minor injuries but no risk of contamination, authorities have said.
Operator EDF said there were no injuries and that a fire had led to a blast in the machine room of one of the two nuclear reactors at Flamanville. The fire had been “immediately” brought under control and the No 1 reactor disconnected from the grid, EDF said. The blast took place in the engine room at the Flamanville plant, which lies 15 miles west of the port of Cherbourg and just across from the Channel Islands.
The local government for the Manche region in north-west France also said the blast has been contained and managed. “It is a significant technical event but it is not a nuclear accident,” Olivier Marmion, a senior local official, said.
The Flamanville 1 and 2 reactors were built in the 1980s. A new reactor is being built at the site but the explosion did not take place there, an EDF spokeswoman said. He said a ventilator had exploded outside the nuclear zone at the plant, which has been in operation since the 1980s. Five people suffered smoke inhalation but there were no serious injuries, Witkowski he added.
The nuclear safety authority ASN said it had no information and could not immediately comment. One of the two pressurised water reactors at the plant was shut down after the explosion and the incident was declared over at 11am GMT, the authorities said.
More details soon … A new third-generation reactor known as EPR is also being built at Flamanville, which will be the world’s largest when it goes into operation in late 2018.
Construction of the new plant at the site in Normandy began in 2007 and was initially due for completion in 2012 but has been delayed several times.
Jacques Witkowski, another local official, told Reuters that authorities had ruled out any deliberate act of sabotage. A mechanical part of a ventilator in the machine room — that wasn’t in contact with the nuclear installations — had probably overheated, he said. The reason was not yet known.