INFO FRANCEINFO. An EDF employee contaminated by a radioactive particle at the Cruas-Meysse power plant in Ard – franceinfo

An EDF employee was contaminated at the end of August by a radioactive particle at the Cruas-Meysse plant in Ardèche, franceinfo revealed on Saturday, September 4. This contamination is considered to be occasional. But, a rare thing, it has been classified as level 2 by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN).

This contamination took place on August 24 during maintenance work. The intervention is not classified as risky. Two EDF employees enter the building of reactor number two at the Cruas plant, which has four, the reactor being shut down. This involves checking for possible leaks in a non-radioactive air pipe. But once the intervention is carried out, one of the agents is stopped while passing the controls at the exit of the nuclear zone of the building. He was contaminated by a radioactive particle which stuck to the back of his neck during his work. Unlike the hands, feet or sometimes the knees, this part of the body is not examined during the intermediate checks at the exits of each room.

The employee was taken care of and showered at the medical service. However, the dose received was deemed high enough to prevent him from working in a nuclear zone for 12 months and to classify the incident as level 2 by ASN. Despite the research carried out by the power plant teams, the causes of the contamination remain unknown to this day. EDF has launched in-depth investigations. The company has two months to submit a report to ASN and make proposals to prevent the incident from happening again.

On August 24, no other employee was affected. But this is the second warning of the year sent by ASN to the Cruas-Meysse plant. The nuclear gendarme had already asked him to step up his radiological safety efforts and better ensure the radiological cleanliness of the facilities.

This contamination incident is the fourth since the end of July in France. The previous ones took place in Cattenom (Moselle), Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin) and Saint-Laurent des Eaux (Loir-et-Cher), but they were less serious than that of Cruas-Meysse. Summer is the most sensitive period for radioactive contamination, because it is the main season for reactor shutdowns for maintenance. Thousands of technicians work in the nuclear areas of power plants, multiplying the risks. So far, ASN has not identified any cases of multiple or recurrent contaminations.