A fire broke out at a uranium processing facility in Tennessee on Wednesday, but officials say there is nothing to worry about.
The fire started at the Y-12 National Security Complex uranium processing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee shortly after 9:00 a.m., USA Today reported. Several hundred employees were evacuated from the site, and air monitors did not go off in the facility.
All staff members were accounted for, without injury, and no contamination has been identified, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The fire only impacted building 9212, which is the primary chemical process and enriched uranium facilities.
Outside of the impacted area, parts of Y-12 are already running as normal, officials told the outlet. The official Y-12 Twitter account said there was no off-site impact to the public.
An incident has occurred @y12nsc. Y-12 emergency response personnel are at the scene of the incident. Appropriate precautionary actions have been initiated for Y-12 employees. There is no off-site impact to the public as a result of the incident.
— Y-12 NSC (@y12nsc) February 22, 2023
The cause of the fire is currently unclear, and there is an ongoing investigation into the entire incident, USA Today noted. “This is an ongoing investigation,” Y-12 spokesman Gene Patterson told the outlet. “We are still in the process of figuring out exactly what that timeline is on what happened this morning.” (RELATED: ‘We Basically Nuked A Town’: Three More Chemicals Discovered At Train Derailment Site)
An Government Accountability Office report from 2020 stated that building 9212 was “the oldest building with the highest nuclear safety risk at the Y-12 National Security Complex.” A new uranium processing facility is scheduled to be completed in 2025, which would cease all operations in building 9212.