France's nuclear protection watchdog said Friday that the earthquake in western China caused minor damages to nuclear facilities being dismantled but no apparent radioactivity leaks.
Chinese nuclear authorities "reacted well" to the quake and immediately shut down nuclear sites for inspection, said Thierry Charles, director of plant safety at the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.
China's government has a research nuclear reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two nuclear weapons sites in Sichuan province, where the magnitude-7.9 quake struck Monday, according to the French agency. All were between 40 and 90 miles (70-150 kilometers) from the epicenter.
Charles said that counterparts at China's nuclear safety agency, NNSA, have reported no radioactivity leaks since the quake.
He said the Chinese agency reported "light damages" to older nuclear facilities that are being dismantled, noting that seismic construction codes were less strict when those facilities were built. They did not specify which facilities suffered the damage.
French authorities do not yet have a full picture of possible damages at the nuclear weapons sites, where information is more closely guarded, Charles said.
But he added, "At this stage, I don't think there were any leaks, because they would have reported them by now. The worst to worry about now is degradation of buildings, cracks, this kind of thing."
One of the fuel enrichment facilities, at Yibin, has been restarted, Charles said, which he called an encouraging sign. He said a final conclusion on nuclear damages would depend on further inspections by Chinese authorities.
The French watchdog first raised the possibility Tuesday of damage to nuclear sites in Sichuan from the devastating quake. On Friday, the watchdog issued an updated report on the quake.
The new report says there was likely no "notable damage" to China's four nuclear powered-plants generating electricity. All are in eastern China, far from the quake's epicenter.
