Czech Temelin says cooling water leaked, contained

...said on Wednesday the leak was contained and did not cause any damage.

Temelin spokesman Milan Nebesar said the leak occurred at the plant's first block, which is currently closed for scheduled maintenance, during pressure tests.

"The incident happened in the controlled section of the power station, there was no danger to the power plant's workers nor the environment," he said in a statement.

The plant's second block is operating at 99 percent capacity, he added.

Temelin has reported a series of glitches which have angered neighbouring Austria.

A previous water leak last week provoked fresh criticism from Austrian officials who said the Czechs were slow to inform on the incident which occurred while Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer was on an official visit to Prague.

Majority state-owned power utility CEZ runs the two reactors with combined capacity of 2,000 megawatts at the Temelin plant.

CEZ has been mulling an expansion of its nuclear generation capacity, although the new centre-right government has pledged not to start building new plants while it is in office.

Nuclear energy is re-emerging as the possible solution for growing energy needs at the time of high fossil fuel costs and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.