An explosion occurred yesterday (12th Sept 2011) at the Marcoule nuclear waste processing plant in France, leaving one person dead and four injured, one seriously. The authorities are seeking to downplay the incident as an 'industrial accident' but serious concerns remain.
The Official Version of the French Nuclear Plant Explosion
According to a statement by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the explosion occurred in the morning in a waste-processing plant in Codolet in the South of France. The site of the explosion was a furnace used to melt waste metals with a low or very low level of radioactivity.
ASN stated: "The building in question has not been damaged. The people injured have not been contaminated and measurements taken outside building by the plant operator and fire service specialists have revealed no external contamination."
In conclusion the agency stated: "This accident does not constitute a radiological danger or require action to protect the local population. ASN is suspending its crisis team activities."
The explosion at the plant took place at 11.45 AM and the resultant fire was brought under control at 1:00 PM.
Statements by the Marcoule Nuclear Plant's Owners
The affected site, Centraco (a centre for processing and packaging low-level waste), is operated by Socodei, a subsidiary of the French national electricity utility company, EDF.
A spokesman for EDF confirmed that one person had died in a room next to the furnace but that the detonation had remained contained just in this area without exploding the building itself. Another person was severely burned and remained in serious condition and three other people were injured. EDF could not provide any immediate explanation for the explosion.
A member of Socodei's management team interviewed on BFM TV stated that "This is a classic operational accident" and added that he expected it to be classified only as Level 1 on the international scale of nuclear accidents, which has 7 levels of severity.
Continuing Concern Regarding the Plant's Safety
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for immediate information from the French authorities and activated its crisis center.
The Minister for Ecology, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, has announced that she was going to the plant.
News of the explosion impacted the Paris Stock Exchange, which lost more than 5% in subsequent trading, with EDF losing 5.60% at the start of the afternoon before restricting its losses to around 3.00%.
Faults Reported on the Marcoule Site in 2008
In its annual report for 2010, ASN discussed "faults" that had been reported in 2008 but found that "the owner had genuinely adopted its safety improvement programme".
In the same report, ASN said that it would be "particularly vigilant "regarding Centraco's planned development, which would require the plant to take on increasingly larger quantities of leaching effluent from steam generators, in which radiological levels are low but which are likely to have significant chemical loadings. "
Causes for Concern Regarding the Marcoule Plant
To date, no reason has been given for the explosion in a furnace handling low-grade waste materials and only the briefest details of the casualties have been provided. The names of the casualties have not been released nor has any sympathy for their families been expressed. It has been stated that three of the four injured in the blast received only minor injuries but none of them has been available for interview. Is this lack of sympathy and paucity of information on the part of the management a reflection of an indifferent attitude to its workforce and public concern in general? Or is it an attempt to prevent deeper investigation of the circumstances that led to the incident?
The local newspaper, Midi Libre, reported that the body of a male worker at the plant had been "found carbonized". This would indicate that a very high temperature explosion had occurred, higher perhaps than might be expected from treating materiels with a low level of radioactivity.
France Nature Environment (FNE), an anti-nuclear pressure group, said in a statement that the Marcoule site "stores large amounts of radioactive waste and handles MOX." This is a mixed oxide fuel containing uranium and plutonium oxides, which is used in light water reactors. It is produced by recycling plutonium from nuclear weapons, and is partly used by the French nuclear power company, Areva. Part of the process involves firing superheated pellets of plutonium and uranium in a kiln or furnace to reduce them in size to make them easier to store. Although MOX is produced elsewhere on the Marcoule site, the furnace in which the explosion occurred is not designated for MOX production.
The plant also now houses teams of researchers into nuclear combustion cycles working under the authority of the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA).
The Marcoule plant, one of the earliest nuclear waste reprocessing plants in France, is located close to the river Rhone, approximately 60 miles north of the Mediterranean Sea. Nuclear pollution escaping into the river would impact all the countries bordering the western Mediterranean.
The incident has become ammunition for the political parties in the run-up to the French presidential election in 2012 and the subject of intense debate by the usually well-regulated French media regarding the capability of France to handle a major nuclear incident.
Update on the aftermath of the explosion.
Sources:
The Guardian - Kim Willsher in Paris 12th Sept 2011 "Explosion at French nuclear waste plant"
Reuters - Yves Clarisse via Yahoo News 12th Sept 2011 "Explosion sur un site nucléaire du Gard, un mort"
Midi Libre 12th sept 2011 "Explosion sur le site de Marcoule : il n'y a pas de "fuite radioactive""
Martin Cross - A translator, former chef and marketeer, currently disabled. I write articles on food,, travel, politics, religion and technology.
