The French electricity company, Electret de France (EDF), has warned of serious problems at a nuclear power plant in China and demanded its closure, according to CNN.

A spokesman for the company, which co-owns the plant, said that although the state of emergency had not been declared at the Taishan nuclear power plant, located in southern Guangdong province in China, the situation is serious and developing.

The French company stressed that the plant should be closed due to damage to the fuel rods, noting that this decision is up to the Chinese partner and main shareholder in the plant, China General Nuclear Energy Group (CGN).

The spokesman added that if the reactor had been in France, the company would have already closed it because of "procedures related to the operation of nuclear power plants in France".

The Chinese authorities, for their part, denied the existence of any danger to the station and said that "there are no changes in the rate of radioactivity", and that the station's safety is "guaranteed".

In June, the Chinese Nuclear Safety Administration acknowledged that there was an increase in the level of radioactivity in the primary circuit of one of the two reactors due to damage to the fuel rods.