San Onofre

Five workers at the San Onofre nuclear power plant were contaminated by radioactive water when a valve they were trying to open sprang a leak, Southern California Edison reported Tuesday.

The men were decontaminated, and none suffered exposure above regulatory limits, said David Barron, a spokesman for Edison, the plant’s operator.

The incident occurred Monday evening as the workers were opening a valve during refueling operations at the Unit 2 reactor, which had been taken out of service Friday for scheduled refueling after a 15-month operating cycle.

Barron said packing material around the valve failed as two of the men attempted to open the device. When water began spraying out, three others came to help.

The water is used to cool the radioactive core of the reactor.

Water that leaked from the valve was funneled from the containment building to the plant’s processing facilities, Barron said, stressing that there was no release of radiation “to the environment” above regulatory limits.

The men were showered down and scrubbed after being exposed to the water. Barron said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was notified and plant officials were not forced to enact any emergency procedures.