Fire breaks out at a fed’s chief nuclear storehouse, no injuries reported

A fire broke out Wednesday in a building at a Department of Energy nuclear weapon and nuclear fuel depot in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

At around 9:15 a.m. EST, a fire broke out in a handling hood used to safely deal with radioactive materials at the Y-12 National Security Complex. In updates on Facebook, officials said no one was injured and the fire was confined to the building where the hood was located. 

The Y-12 National Security Complex, which was built as part of the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium for the first atomic bombs, now handles the upkeep of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile and fuel for nuclear-powered Navy vessels.

Around 200 employees in and near the building were evacuated, and no injuries or contamination were reported, according to WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.

There was also no offsite impact in the area surrounding the complex, Y-12 officials said. As of 1:10 p.m., curfews were lifted and incoming shifts were expected to report to the facility on time.

The affected building was Building 9212, built in 1945 to handle uranium, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The fire was sparked by uranium in the form of a metal, Y-12 officials told WVLT-TV.

Y-12 officials have not announced whether or not the fire has been extinguished, but they have notified congressional representatives of the emergency response at the site.

“I think they are comfortable with what we did today,” a Y-12 spokesperson said.