Cooling System Explodes In UCLA Building

Wednesday, July 25th 2007, 2:43 pm

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The cooling system of a building at the University of California, Los Angeles, exploded Wednesday, damaging two underground levels of a nanotechnology center, authorities said.

No one was injured and an electrical malfunction was suspected as the cause of the blast, the university said in a statement.

There was no fire but a pool of what was believed to be liquid freon was seen on the floor at the California NanoSystems Institute, the school and Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. Hazardous materials teams were on scene.

``The building does not appear to be damaged externally, the damage appears to be within this area in the equipment room,'' he said.

According to its Web site, the NanoSystems Institute develops and promotes nanotechnology, which is extremely small technology on the scale of atoms and molecules.