‘Radiological release’ triggers emergency response at SRS

Key Points:

• A fire occurred in a single room at the Savannah River National Laboratory within the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) on Wednesday evening, triggering a "site area emergency" response; the fire has been extinguished with no indication of contamination beyond the site boundaries.
• Employees in the affected lab area sheltered in place behind barricades for about 30 minutes, and precautionary measures included closing site entrances to incoming traffic and restricting rail, river, and air traffic, with a temporary FAA flight restriction in place until Thursday midnight.
• The Savannah River Site is a 310-square-mile DOE complex focused on nuclear materials management, environmental cleanup, and national security research, originally built in the 1950s for nuclear weapons production and now managing legacy materials and waste.
• SRS conducts extensive emergency preparedness drills annually, including site-level, facility-level, and tabletop exercises, to train for incidents like the recent radiological release scenario simulated in past drills involving personnel response and protective actions.