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No damage to people or the environment

A small fire, immediately put out, developed at 11:30 a.m. on February 25th in one of the rooms at the National Laboratories in Legnaro, near Padoa. The accident occured during one of the regular tests on the control systems in a particle accelerator: these are security procedures that are usually carried out before any machinery is switched on. In this case, a short circuit occured, causing a component of one of the computers to ignite. The fire then spread to burn a few cables and other control instruments. The emergency crews that exist inside the Legnaro Laboratories were on the scene in three minutes, putting out the fire. The effects of the the accident were thus confined to a volume of about half a cubic metre. As prescribed by the procedures, the Laboratories’ direction then immediately informed the Arpav (the Regional Environmental Protection Agency of Veneto), and the fire department, who promptly reached the site and carried out all the inspections necessary to insure the absence of any further danger.
The accident caused no damage either to the environment or to people, but it did damage some instruments, whose value was set at about 20.000 euros by a first evaluation. The accelerator will supposedly be operational again in about a month.