USA: On Wednesday, a fire started at a significant US uranium processing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Department of Energy officials insisted that all workers have been located and that no one is in danger.
According to the local Knoxville television station WVLT-TV, the "incident" took place at Building 9212 of the Y-12 National Security Complex. Emergency services were called to "a fire involving uranium," according to the source. As emergency personnel responded to put out the fire, the building's approximately 200 employees were forced to leave.
According to a Y-12 spokesperson who spoke with WVLT, "I think if you live nearby you'd be very concerned." The problem has been managed and is contained.
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The facility's official Twitter account mentioned "an incident" that occurred on Wednesday morning around 9:15. A later description identified it as "a fire in a hood" that was "contained to the production building." No injuries or contamination were reported, and there was "no off-site impact to the public as a result of the incident," according to Y-12.
Building 9212 remained off-limits, and there was no proof that the fire had been put out, even though the complex had resumed normal operations by 1pm local time.
According to Y-12 officials, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC are in charge of the response.
The structure is designated as a uranium processing facility by the US Department of Energy. It was constructed in 1945 for the initial nuclear weapons programme and is currently one of the main facilities at Y-12 for producing enriched uranium. However, it was supposed to be decommissioned by the end of 2025. According to WVLT, the fire involved "a compound of uranium... in a metal form."
The National Security Complex is described on the Y-12 website as "a premier manufacturing facility dedicated to making our country and the world a safer place," which deals with nuclear material storage, fuel production for US Navy reactors, and "complementary work for other government and private-sector entities."
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The US government established Oak Ridge in 1942 as a component of the "Manhattan Project" to create the first atomic bomb. The planned community, which has about 75,000 residents, was initially administered by the federal government in secrecy but became a city in 1959.