Penly - a French nuclear reactor owned and operated by EDF - had its 1,330-megawatt Unit 2 reactor automatically shut down after two small fires broke out in the plant Thursday.
The fires were caused by hot oil leaking from a pump inside the reactor building, an EDF spokeswoman said, quoted by Reuters news agency. The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said firefighters quickly extinguished the flames.
The fires also damaged the cooling pumps, leading to a leak of radioactive cooling fluid. According to the ASN, the fluid was safely “collected in tanks provided for this purpose."
No one was hurt and the incident had "no consequences for the environment", the EDF said.
The reactor will remain “several days at a standstill,” said Dominique Mining, director of EDF’s nuclear fleet.
France generates 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and the future of the industry has become an issue in campaigns for the presidential election to be held in April and May.
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