(LJUBLJANA) - Repairs at on a water coolant system leak which forced Slovenia to close down its only nuclear plant will start on Friday, the plant's director.

"The situation is normal, we've started the cooling process," Stane Ruzman, director of the Krsko nuclear complex, told Austrian television ORF. "We will start the repairs tomorrow."

Technicians were to inspect the plant as soon as the cooling process had completed and it would take several days to repair the defect, the Slovenian news agency STA reported.

The plant was expected to be up and running again on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, ORF reported.

Krsko, 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Ljubljana, was shut down Wednesday following a leak in the cooling system that prompted an EU-wide radiation alert.

But Slovenian authorities have insisted there is no danger from the incident.

"One of the pipes or valves connected to the primary cooling system probably developed a leak," Andrej Stritar of the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) told national television Wednesday evening.

He added that the leak was small, STA reported.

The SNSA had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of an "unusual event," defined as the lowest level of emergency, the IAEA said.

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