Plutonium leak at our Vienna laboratory, IAEA confirms

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

VIENNA (AFP) — Plutonium leaked overnight in an ageing laboratory operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) near Vienna, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Sunday.

The leak follows warnings late last year from the head of the IAEA that the facility at Seibersdorf was outdated and did not meet safety standards.

"Pressure build-up in a small sealed sample bottle in a storage safe resulted in plutonium contamination of a storage room at about 02:30 (00:30 GMT). No one was working in the laboratory at the time."

The leak set off an automatic alarm via an air-monitoring system.

"All indications are that there was no release of radioactivity to the environment," the IAEA said.

The IAEA has begun an inquiry and is testing the...