Officials designated a Site Area Emergency at 5:39 p.m. on October 28, 2026, after a fire ignited at the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken, South Carolina.
Emergency crews put out the laboratory blaze approximately two hours after it was reported. Savannah River Site officials stated that no radiological contamination had been reported outside the involved building, noting in a statement that "No contamination has been reported outside the affected facility."
Transport Halts and Facility Precautions
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction within a 15-nautical-mile radius from the ground up to 10,000 feet for a government nuclear incident at the facility. Authorities also restricted local river and rail transit, while entrance barricades were closed to incoming traffic as people were permitted to exit.
Staff members in affected areas not participating in emergency response or shutdown operations sheltered in place. An emergency dispatch call reportedly stated that the incident involved a fire inside a single room along with an unfiltered ground-level radiological release, while indicating there was no off-site hazard.
The underlying cause of the fire within the room is not yet known. Built in the 1950s to produce tritium and plutonium-239, the complex now focuses on environmental cleanup and nuclear waste management.
