Slovenia has shut down the reactor at its nuclear power plant after a water leak on Wednesday. The European Union has issued a warning, but says the incident poses no threat to the population or the environment.

EU officials confirm the situation is under control.

In the alert to its members, the EU said no discharge into the environment was immediately detected.

The statement issued by Slovenia's Nuclear Safety Administration said the reactor at the Krsko power plant was being shut down as a precaution so that technicians could inspect the cause of the problem.

The EU's executive body says Slovene authorities were ‘transparent providing information’ about a problem with the primary cooling system at the plant and that a safe shutdown procedure was carried out.

The EU said the information was immediately passed on to all the nations in the bloc and an emergency team at the EU's energy directorate was placed on alert.

The plant was built in the 1980s and is jointly owned by Slovenia and neighbouring Croatia.