Emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Norway

[Christophe]

A nuclear reactor, used for research purposes and located 25 kilometers from Oslo, was shut down urgently on the night of Friday September 8 to Saturday September 9, after high levels of radioactivity were detected. These abnormal levels of radioactivity were observed inside the reactor, but not outside the building housing it.

“Around 3:XNUMX am that night, the alarm at the reactor at the Technical Institute for Energy, in Kjeller, went off. The reactor was immediately turned off. No radioactivity above normal values ​​was measured in outside "of the building, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency said in a statement.

"The situation is under control, the reactor has been shut down and all emergency measures have been taken. What we are doing now is (...) to try to carry out other measures around, to make sure that no leak has taken place, "she said, adding that" so far, no leak outside the containment has been detected ".

Agency official Ingar Amundsen said it was still too early to be able to provide the causes of the incident, considering that it could be "a leak in the metal sheath containing the nuclear fuel ". "

Water samples from the reactor will be analyzed and the results could be known during the day. No evacuation of people in the vicinity of the reactor took place and no one was inside the building when the alarm went off.

source: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0 ... 354,0.html