July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

PARIS, July 10: France’s nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Thursday it had provisionally classified a leak of liquid containing uranium on a site in southeastern France earlier this week at level one of the INES nuclear scale.

The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), used to measure the potential danger of incidents at nuclear installation, has seven levels, the lowest of which is zero.

“The ASN has provisionally classified this event at the level one on the INES scale,” the ASN said in a statement.

Areva said late on Tuesday that 30 cubic metres of liquid containing uranium, which was not enriched, was accidentally poured on the ground and into a river at the Tricastin nuclear site.

The incident occurred on Monday at 2300 local (2100 GMT) and was only reported to the ASN eight hours later, drawing sharp criticism from green groups. The affected residential areas were only informed at 1300 (1100 GMT) on Tuesday.

—Reuters