Marcoule Nuclear Plant Explosion in Southern France Leaves 1 Dead
One person has died, one is heavily injured and three were transported to a hospital with light injuries after a furnace blast at a nuclear power plant in southern France, Marcoule. The accident occurred at 11:45 a.m. local time on Monday, at a plant that treats nuclear waste. Local authorities confirmed there is no immediate leak threat.
Evangelia Petit of the Agency for Nuclear Safety has confirmed with Associated Press that an explosion took place, but declined to provide details.
No quarantine or evacuation orders have been issued for neighboring towns, but one person is reported dead. Three people have also been hospitalized with lighter injuries and one, heavily wounded, was transported to a hospital in Montpellier in a helicopter, according to a local paper, Midi Libre. The lightly injured are hospitalized in the nearby Bagnols-sur-Cèze.
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Marcoule lies in the touristy, wine producing Côtes-du-Rhône region.
The explosion could be a blow to France’s reputation as an energy provider. France derives over 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy. The World Nuclear Association lists the country as the world's largest net exporter of electricity due to its very low cost of generation. France began the development of its nuclear energy program in 1945.
In Europe, Germany has already started to trim its nuclear program after the Fukushima leak. After Monday’s incident in Marcoule, many eyes will be on France to see if it will seek to follow that policy.
Meanwhile, it was only on Wednesday that the new chief of the International Energy Agency based in Vienna , Maria van der Hoeven said that nuclear power will have a place in the future of Europe and the world. The statement uttered in an interview with AFP was in response to the growing concern about nuclear safety.
"If you would like to abandon nuclear, then my question is: 'How are you going to meet the growing demand of energy when you are abandoning one of your sources?" van der Hoeven asked AFP in the interview.
Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign’s leader, Jan Beránek, said that the explosion serves as “yet another tragic reminder of the dangers of nuclear power and the urgent need for governments to follow the lead taken by Germany in phasing it out.”
Beránek reminded that the Marcoule site has not been included in the stress tests of nuclear facilities requested recently by the French government, nor in recent inspections by the Nuclear Safety Authority.
“France, like Japan and Germany, needs to choose between dirty and risky energy technologies, and modern renewable energy that will deliver reliable and affordable energy to meet the world’s needs,” he said in a statement.
Earlier Monday, Greenpeace presented an Energy Revolution scenario for Japan that shows how the country can abandon nuclear reactors already in 2012, while meeting its ambitious carbon reduction targets.
