Plutonium Waste Contamination Found Near Paris

PARIS — Concrete drums containing nuclear waste have leaked plutonium into the ground near an area where hundreds of children play each day, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The daily Le Parisien said the discovery of plutonium in soil samples shows there is a radioactive threat to residents of Saint Aubin, a town on the outskirts of Paris.

But the official Atomic Energy Commissariat, in charge of France’s nuclear program, said the plutonium discovered measured well below minimum danger levels.

Le Parisien reported that an independent German scientific team from the University of Bremen conducted random samples on about nine pounds of soil gathered near the site.