A fire broke out this Wednesday, December 11, 2024 around 11:30 a.m. in the Extractive Metallurgy Innovation Center (CIME) at the Orano industrial site in Bessines-sur-Gartempe in Haute-Vienne, a specialist in nuclear materials. Firefighters are on site and according to the Orano group, “the situation is definitely under control“, at 4:20 p.m. A crisis unit, in conjunction with the Haute-Vienne prefecture, was immediately set up.
Site employees returned home
As a precautionary measure, the site employees were asked to return homeafter having all been gathered together. Orano specifies that additional checks are underway to assess the situation. The Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety will send a team to the site to carry out radioactivity control measures. IRSN agents, coming from Lyon, will arrive in the evening and will carry out the measurements on Thursday morning. According to Orano, the first checks carried out after the fire show radioactivity values located below maximum standards.
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