Friday, December 16 2005 12:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

St Petersburg: An explosion ripped through a smelter at a Russian nuclear power plant outside the northern city of St. Petersburg but radiation levels were normal, the state nuclear agency Rosenergoatom said today (Dec 16, 2005).

The blast occurred yesterday (Dec 15, 2005) at the Leningrad nuclear power plant. Rosenergoatom said that the smelter was located on the territory of the plant's second unit.

Three people were injured in the blast, the company said. "There were no violations of safety levels and operating conditions of the energy units of the Leningrad nuclear plant," Rosenergoatom said in a statement.

The second unit had been shut down for planned capital repairs in July, it said.

The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted the Emergency Situations Ministry as saying that the blast had occurred outside the nuclear plant, in an industrial zone in the city of Sosnovy Bor. The ministry said that two of the three people injured had burns over 90 percent of their bodies.