An explosion occurred on Monday September the 12th around mid-day in the facility CENTRACO located in Marcoule, in the Gard region (30), South- East of France.
IRSN activated at 13h00 pm its technical preparedness and response centre (CTC) to provide the interface with the owner and the public authorities, and to coordinate the interventions of the Institute.
The CENTRACO facility is operated by SOCODEI. The installation is dedicated to the treatment and conditioning of low level radioactive waste, either by melting of metallic waste or by incineration of incinerable waste.
An oven dedicated to melt low and very low radioactive metallic waste exploded inside the building. The installation was shutdown straight after the explosion and all staff was evacuated apart from staff in charge of the management of the accident.
SOCODEI announced the death of one operator and 4 wounded, including 1 in a serious condition.
According to SOCODEI this explosion did not involve radioactive releases into the environment as the building remained intact.
The IRSN has sent a mobile team in order to carry out measures in the environment around the site to confirm this point. These measurements are currently under development and their results will be immediately made public.