Madrid - Spain's Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) on Tuesday
suggested that a November leak from a Spanish nuclear power plant may
be worse than thought after radioactivity was found on a lorry that
transported scrap metal from the plant.
The discovery could mean that radioactive particles have been
carried to a distance of dozens of kilometres outside the Asco I
plant, instead of remaining within its confines, as had been believed
so far, according to media reports.
The lorry took scrap metal from the Asco I plant near the eastern
coastal city of Tarragona to a nearby dumping site. The metal itself
was not contaminated, the CSN said.
The CSN said that some 1,600 people were undergoing health checks,
twice as many as had initially been planned.
The leak occurred during refuelling in late November. The director
and protection chief of the Asco I plant were sacked recently after
the leak turned out to have been 100 times more serious than the
plant said in its initial report to the CSN.
Radioactive particles have been discovered within the plant
complex until recently.
More than 850 people have already undergone health checks,
including employees of the nuclear plant and others, such as visiting
schoolchildren, who entered it. No evidence of health damage has been
found so far.
The CSN deemed any such damage 'very unlikely.'
The Asco I plant faces a fine of up to 30 million euros (48
million dollars). The environmental group Greenpeace has sued the
plant, and asked the European atomic energy agency Euratom to
intervene.
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