Updated | Explosion rocks nuclear plant in France, no radioactive leak detected

One person was killed and three people were injured, including one seriously, local newspaper Midi Libre reported.

The accident happened at 11:45am CET at a processing center for nuclear waste. A security perimeter is already in force around the station.

The Marcoule site is located in Langedoc Roussillon in southern France, near the Mediterranean Sea,

Reuters said there was no leak of radioactive  material.

Marcoule is a nuclear waste management site that does not include any reactors. The explosion took place near a furnace. It is a major site for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The Centraco treatment plant belongs to a subsidiary of national energy provider EDF.

Nuclear energy provides more than 70% of France's energy needs. In recent months, all of France's 58 reactors were put through stress tests following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

BBC reported that EDF's share price fell by over 6% as news of the blast emerged.