Thursday 25 October 2012
Response by the Home Department to media enquiries concerning reports of a minor vapour leak at Flamanville.
A Home Department spokesman said:
"The Home Department is aware that a minor vapour leak took place at Flamanville on Wednesday night, but that it was contained inside, had no impact outside of the reactor building and posed no threat to the public. Approximately 100 incidents of this type (level 1) are reported in France each year. They are anomalies that have no impact on the security of the installation."
-ENDS-
Background information:
The International Atomic Energy Agency established the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES) as a tool for promptly communicating to the public in consistent terms the safety significance of reported nuclear and radiological incidents and accidents. The scale runs from Level 0, which has no safety significance through to Level 7, which is a major incident. The reported incident at Flamanville was Level 1 on the INES scale - rated as an 'anomaly'.
