1 Killed, 4 Injured in French Plant Explosion, Pipeline Explosion in Kenya Kills 61

Updated 5:45 p.m. ET Officials now say one person died and four were injured.

According to the Associated Press,

The Nuclear Safety Authority declared the accident “terminated” soon after the blast at a furnace in the Centraco site, in the southern Languedoc-Roussillon region, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city of Avignon. One of the injured suffered severe burns.

The agency said the situation had been brought under control in less than an hour after it broke out shortly past noon.

Original post: | According to local reports, there may be a risk of radioactive leakage following an explosion at a French nuclear plant Monday morning that killed one person and injured three others. The explosion occurred after a fire broke out in a holding site for radioactive waste.

Though there is no evidence yet that radioactive materials have leaked, French officials have set up a security cordon in the area while they asses the risk.

The Marcoule plant, which does not have reactors on site but recycles weapons grade plutonium, is in Langedoc Roussillon near the Mediterranean Sea and has been active since the 1950s.

An International Atomic Energy Agency official in Vienna told the Associated Press that it was in contact with French authorities to try to determine the cause of the blast.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

At Least 75 Dead After Kenya Pipeline Explosion
A pipeline explosion in the Lunga Lunga industrial area of Kenya that spread to a nearby slum in the capital of Nairobi has killed at least 75 people and injured 100 more. Local police estimated as many as 100 people were killed.

The Associated Press reported:

Flames leapt out from the pipeline in a radius of some 300 yards (meters), setting shacks ablaze and incinerating scores of people, leaving charred bodies and blacked bones in the charred homes. Some burned bodies floated in a nearby river filled with sewage. Homes had been built right up to the pipeline, the residents said.

Nearby Kenyatta National Hospital reported an influx of patience with bad burns, many of them children.

Though the cause of the fire is under investigation, some believe a cigarette butt may have ignited the blaze. A pipeline had been leaking fuel and nearby residents had been collecting it when the explosion took place.

In 2009, 100 people died in a massive blaze when an oil tanker overturned in the town of Molo.

Russian Plane Crash Survivor Dies

The only surviving member of the Russian Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team, all of whom were killed Wednesday in a plane crash, died Monday. According to a statement released by the hospital where he was being treated, Alexander Galimov died from severe burns.

Galimov and a flight crew member were the only survivors of the Yak-42 plane crash that killed 43 people.

The cause of the crash is unknown, but it has brought new attention to chronic air safety problems in Russia. President Dmitry Medvedev called for a reduction in the number of private airlines operating in the country and had said before the crash that the Yak-42 jet should be taken out of service.

Image via Independent Television News.

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