Czech Temelin has small leak, water contained

...Thursday the leak was contained and did not cause any environmental damage.

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

"No radioactive materials escaped from the control system of the plant, and the health of workers at the plant was not threatened," Nebesar said.

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

State-owned power utility CEZ runs the two reactors with combined capacity of 2,000 megawatts at the Temelin plant, which has caused friction with environmentalists in neighbouring Austria.

CEZ has been mulling an expansion of its nuclear generation capacity. 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.