Fire at South Carolina nuclear site triggers emergency but no contamination found outside lab, officials say

Savannah River National Laboratory/Facebook

A fire at a South Carolina laboratory on a site that produces materials for US nuclear weapons triggered an emergency response, but the fire was extinguished and no contamination was reported outside of the facility, site officials said.

The emergency at the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken, located on the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, was declared at 5:39 p.m., prompting a temporary shutdown of traffic at the facility’s entrances, the site’s emergency response organization said.

Rail, river and air traffic in the area were also restricted out of precaution, a news release said. As of 9:18 p.m., there were no “operational emergencies or scheduled delays” at the facility and traffic at all entrance barriers resumed, a later update said, and the site emergency was terminated at 9:45 p.m.

All oncoming shift workers were allowed to report to work as usual, the update said.

Facility officials had directed emergency response efforts, as well as notified state and local government agencies, they said.

Earlier Wednesday, officials had advised residents to stay tuned to local news for updates on any actions they may need to take. Employees who were working in the impacted areas of the site had been sheltered “as a precaution” if they were not involved in the emergency response or shutdown operations, officials said.

The Savannah River Site contains both the national laboratory and a defense complex overseen by the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. The site is managed by a pair of private contractors: the lab by Battelle Savannah River Alliance, and the defense site by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC. More than 13,000 contractors and federal employees work there.

The complex was built in the 1950s to produce tritium and plutonium for US nuclear weapons. Today, the site still produces tritium, and it also handles spent nuclear fuel and stores uranium and plutonium. The laboratory area of the site, where the fire occurred, focuses primarily on research, rather than large-scale nuclear material production and storage.

Savannah River Site is also at the heart of the US government’s push to reestablish mass production of US nuclear warheads. NNSA recently gave the site the green light to start full-scale construction on a major facility for producing plutonium pits — the explosive core of modern nuclear weapons — that is expected to cost roughly $23.5 billion, according to trade publication Exchange Monitor .

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting.

萨凡纳河国家实验室/Facebook

南卡罗来纳州一处生产美国核武器材料的实验室发生火灾，引发了紧急响应，但火势已被扑灭，设施外未报告任何污染，现场官员表示。

位于美国能源部萨凡纳河基地的萨凡纳河国家实验室（位于艾肯附近）于下午 5:39 宣布进入紧急状态，导致该设施入口处的交通暂时关闭，该基地应急响应组织表示。

新闻稿称，出于谨慎考虑，该地区的铁路、水路和航空交通也受到限制。随后的更新消息称，截至晚上9点18分，该设施未发生“运营紧急情况或计划延误”，所有入口闸口的交通均已恢复，现场紧急状态于晚上9点45分解除。

最新消息称，所有即将上班的工人都可以照常上班。

他们表示，设施管理人员已指导应急响应工作，并通知了州和地方政府机构。

周三早些时候，官员们建议居民密切关注当地新闻，以便及时了解可能需要采取的任何行动。官员表示，受影响区域的员工，如果未参与应急响应或停工行动，已被“作为预防措施”安置在避难所。

萨凡纳河基地包含国家实验室和由半自治的国家核安全管理局监管的国防综合设施。该基地由两家私营承包商管理：实验室由巴特尔萨凡纳河联盟公司管理，国防综合设施由萨凡纳河核解决方案有限责任公司管理。超过13000名承包商和联邦雇员在此工作。

该设施建于上世纪50年代，用于生产美国核武器所需的氚和钚。如今，该设施仍在生产氚，同时还处理乏核燃料并储存铀和钚。发生火灾的实验室区域主要用于研究，而非大规模核材料生产和储存。

萨凡纳河基地也是美国政府重启美国核弹头大规模生产计划的核心。据行业刊物《交易所观察》报道，美国国家核安全管理局（NNSA）近期已批准该基地全面开工建设一座大型钚弹芯生产设施——钚弹芯是现代核武器的爆炸核心——预计耗资约235亿美元。

这是一则正在更新的新闻。

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