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PARIS : Uranium-bearing liquid has leaked from a broken underground pipeat a nuclear site in southeastern France, the national nuclearsafety authority said Friday. It was the second leak discovered ata French site this month.

Experts are working to determine how much leaked uranium is presentat nuclear company Areva's plant in the town of Romans-sur-Isere,the Nuclear Safety Authority said in a statement. Specialists areto work to clean up the site.

The communique said the pipe is believed to have ruptured severalyears ago. It added that the pipe "was not in line with theapplicable regulations, which require shock resistance abilitysufficient to avoid rupture."

Areva spokesman Charles Hufnagel said the leak of lightly enricheduranium did not spread outside the site and had "absolutely noimpact on the environment." He said the factory hoped the leakwould be classified as a level 1 problem — the most minor ofseven possible rankings.

Still, the announcement was a new blow for Areva after a similarincident last week, when a liquid containing traces of unenricheduranium leaked from a factory in Tricastin in southern France.Areva said that problem "did not affect either the health ofemployees and local populations, or their environment."