Vienna, 13. Aug. (Vienna Review / AFP ) - Plutonium leaked overnight in an ageing laboratory operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) near Vienna, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Sunday. 

The leak follows warnings late last year from the head of the IAEA that the facility at Seibersdorf was outdated and did not meet safety standards.

"Pressure build-up in a small sealed sample bottle in a storage safe resulted in plutonium contamination of a storage room at about 02:30 (00:30 GMT). No one was working in the laboratory at the time."

The leak set off an automatic alarm via an air-monitoring system.

"All indications are that there was no release of radioactivity to the environment," the IAEA said.

The IAEA has begun an inquiry and is testing the area around the contaminated laboratory, which has been sealed.

Environment ministry spokesman Daniel Kapp said Austrian monitoring centres had detected no increase in radioactivity.

The laboratory, which was built in 1970, carries out tests on samples taken during IAEA surveillance missions.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in November 2007 that the site did not meet UN safety standards. He called for 27.2 million euros from member states to modernise the laboratory.

At the time ElBaradei had spoken of an "ever-growing risk" that key components might break down. These included the ventilation system that is designed to reduce the risk of radioactive leaks.

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