An EDF employee was contaminated by a radioactive particle at the Cruas-Meysse plant (Ardèche), according to our colleagues from Franceinfo, while he was carrying out maintenance work in a shutdown reactor.
The operation was deemed to be without particular risk, but a particle was detected on the back of the neck of one of the two EDF employees performing it during exit checks.
A part of the body less examined during checks than the hands or feet.
The employee was taken care of but is prohibited from working in the nuclear industry for twelve months and the incident was classified as level 2 by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN).
The causes of the contamination remain unknown to this day and no other employee was affected that day.
This is nevertheless the second warning of the year for the Cruas-Meysse plant alone by ASN, and the fourth contamination incident 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 were not classified in category 2 unlike the Cruas-Meysse power station.
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