Leak at Czech nuclear plant

The Temelin plant has caused friction between the Czech Republic and Austria

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Radioactive water has leaked during reactor tests at a controversial Czech nuclear plant, a spokesman has told Reuters.

Spokesman for the plant, Milan Nebesar, said all the water, which leaked at the Temelin plant during the incident on Wednesday, remained within the reactor's safety shell.

Radiation levels were very low and there was no danger either to staff or to the environment, he said.

The plant -- around 60 kilometres (38 miles) north of the Austrian border -- has been a source of friction with Austria.

Austrian protesters have staged border blockades demanding its closure, and a series of minor failures have forced repeated shutdowns since it was first launched last October.

Austria says the station, which combines a Russian VVER-1,000 reactor with a U.S.-made control system by Westinghouse, may be unsafe.

Its operator, the government-controlled power company CEZ, insists it is a state-of-the-art project.

A recent Czech-led independent commission -- which included observers from the EU, Austria and Germany -- gave Temelin high marks in an environmental impact study.

Nebesar said: "The water was slightly radioactive. The levels of radiation did not reach even the lowest classification of a radiation event.

"It was rather a mistake of operating staff (than a system fault)."

An International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, official said: "It shouldn't have happened but we don't consider it a serious incident."

Temelin's 981-megawatt reactor has been off line since early May due to turbine problems, and is not expected back on line before late July. Another reactor is due for completion next year.

Nebesar said CEZ -- who now expects to start commercial operation three months later than originally planned -- would investigate the water leakage.

He said water used for cooling the reactor in the first block of the plant went to the sewage system and will be returned back to the cooling circuit.

The $2.6 million plant -- opened by the Communist government in the 1980s -- is currently out of operation for technical reasons.

Western European nuclear watchdogs have said the station could match the safety of western reactors if a few outstanding issues were resolved.