Fire at Savannah River Lab Prompts Site Area Emergency in South Carolina

Updated 03:57 UTC

Savannah River Site officials terminated the Site Area Emergency at 9:45 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, lifted the protective actions and reopened the site barricades, according to News Release #3 from the site emergency response organization. Radiological surveys indicated no detectable levels of contamination, the release said, and Highway 125 remained open. CNN reported that traffic at all entrance barriers had resumed as of 9:18 p.m. and that oncoming shift workers were allowed to report to work as usual, and the site said other employees should report as scheduled on Thursday, October 29.

One employee was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, a spokesperson for the United States Department of Energy told Reuters. The New York Post reported the same detail from a spokesperson for the Department of Energy Savannah River Operations Office, who also said no radiological contamination has been reported. Officials still have not said what caused the fire.

Savannah River Site officials declared a Site Area Emergency at 5:39 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday after a fire was reported at the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken, South Carolina. The fire has since been extinguished, and officials said no contamination has been reported outside the affected facility.

The laboratory sits inside the Savannah River Site, a large United States Department of Energy complex along the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. Local station WRDW reported that the fire involved a single room at the laboratory and that site officials described an unfiltered ground-level radiological release connected with the fire. WRDW also reported that employees in the laboratory area, known as Area A, sheltered in place behind barricades for about 30 minutes before they were allowed to leave, while other workers were kept out.

Roads, rail, river and air traffic restricted

As a precaution, barricades at site entrances were closed to incoming traffic. Rail, river and air traffic in the vicinity of the site was also restricted, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction for the area. Fox News reported that crews extinguished the fire roughly two hours after it was reported.

In areas of the site affected by the incident, employees who were not involved in emergency response or shutdown operations were sheltered as a precaution. Savannah River Site officials are directing the response and have notified the appropriate state and local government agencies. In News Release #2, issued at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time, the site told local residents to tune in to local radio and TV stations, where state officials will announce any actions residents may need to take.

What is not yet known

Officials have not said what caused the fire. The nature and amount of any material released were not immediately known in the first releases. The official release said no contamination has been reported outside the affected facility and gave no indication of consequences beyond the site boundaries. The site said more specific information will be provided through its website and its Facebook page as it becomes available.

A Cold War site with a cleanup mission

The Savannah River Site covers about 310 square miles along the South Carolina and Georgia border. Built in the 1950s, it produced plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Its work now includes nuclear materials management, environmental cleanup and research, and the Savannah River National Laboratory is its research arm. A Site Area Emergency is a serious classification, and Wednesday evening's declaration put the site's full emergency organization to work while the fire was brought under control.