Centraco blast rated as INES level 1

Friday, 30 September 2011 The 12 September explosion in a furnace at the Centraco low-level radioactive waste processing facility in southern France has been rated at Level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), the lowest level of event classification. The blast at the facility, owned by the EDF subsidiary Socodei, resulted in the death of one worker and injury to four others, the most serious of who remains in hospital in Paris. The French nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), said that an investigation revealed that some four tonnes of metal with an activity of about 30 million becquerels was being melted in the furnace at the time of the accident. It has asked Socodei to explain why it initially said that the level of activity was only 63,000 becquerels. However, the ASN confirmed that no radiation had been released from the plant as a result of the "serious industrial accident." It has now given its approval for the furnaces to be restarted.