The fire that broke out inside a workshop containing uranium at the Framatome plant in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) has been brought under control. “No radioactive substance was affected by the fire”announced the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), Wednesday, September 21.
The fire was detected at 4:25 p.m., according to the prefecture, and the operator informed ASN at 5:10 p.m., according to the latter. “The checks carried out by the operator did not reveal any radioactivity in the air of the premises or outside”said ASN, adding that the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) will be on site on Thursday to “carry out complementary measurements in the environment”.
The event, due to a “printer that caught fire”, lasted about an hour, explained to Agence France-Presse the chief inspector of the ASN, Christophe Quintin. The outbreak of fire was brought under control by means internal to the company. Separately, about forty firefighters, “including teams specializing in technological risks”were mobilized on the spot, reported the prefecture of Drôme.
Staff evacuated, production stopped
“The outbreak of fire detected inside a factory workshop was extinguished by the teams of firefighters mobilized on the site”added the prefecture, according to which “the departmental operational center has been lifted as well as the device on the site”in a press release.
The factory employs nine hundred and fifty people. On its website, the Framatome group, majority owned by Electricité de France (EDF), mentions that its Romans-sur-Isère plant manufactures “fuel assemblies for power generation reactors” and “fuel elements for research reactors based on enriched uranium”. “There was a fire outbreak in a workshop, following which the security teams intervened, allowing the fire to be quickly brought under control”said Framatome.
The printer caught fire in a place where nuclear materials were stored in “plexiglass boxes”, said Mr. Quintin. This uranium was solid. Also on site is 1.7 kilograms of uranium in the form of recovered powder, but “fairly far from home”, he added. The fire started in a room of 20 square meters, according to the prefecture. “The radioactivity measurements were taken by the operator on the chimney filters”added the ASN inspector.
The staff was evacuated, production in this building stopped and all the premises within the factory were made safe, according to the operator. Framatome has set up “a monitoring device to prevent any new outbreak of fire in the premises concerned”according to ASN, which authorized him to “raise its internal emergency plan”.