A fire occurred at the Savannah River nuclear facility in the United States; no contamination was detected after the emergency. Newsweek reports, UNN writes.
Details
Representatives of the Savannah River Site (SRS) said radiological surveys detected no contamination following a fire at the Savannah River National Laboratory on Wednesday evening, October 28, local time.
One employee sustained minor injuries and was taken to a hospital, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) told Fox News.
An emergency was declared at the facility at 5:07 p.m. local time at the site near Aiken, South Carolina, after a fire was reported at the Savannah River National Laboratory. The fire has since been extinguished, according to the latest SRS press release.
The latest social media update confirms that the emergency is "over."
As of 9:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday, October 28, the emergency had been terminated, and protective measures, including the site perimeter, had been removed.
Residents nearby had earlier been urged to monitor local television and radio broadcasts for any actions that state officials might announce.
What is known about the nuclear facility
According to the SRS website, the facility is part of the United States' national nuclear security facilities.
According to the website, it was built in the 1950s to produce materials used in nuclear weapons, primarily plutonium-239 and tritium. Five reactors were built there, along with two chemical separation plants, a heavy-water extraction plant, a tritium extraction plant, a nuclear fuel and target fabrication facility, and waste disposal facilities.