A fire broke out at the Savannah River National Laboratory, part of the Savannah River Site nuclear facility in South Carolina, triggering a temporary flight restriction by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and an emergency response.
What happened
The fire, which was reported on October 28, 2026, has been extinguished, and no contamination has been reported outside the affected facility. As a precaution, barricades at site entrances were closed to incoming traffic, and rail, river, and air traffic in the vicinity were restricted.
According to the Savannah River Site, a Site Area Emergency was declared at 5:39 p.m. on October 28, 2026, but was later terminated at 9:45 p.m. after radiological surveys indicated no detectable levels of contamination. The FAA's temporary flight restriction, which covered a 15-nautical-mile radius around the site, has also been lifted.
The Savannah River Site is a United States Department of Energy industrial complex that covers 310 square miles and employs over 10,000 people. The site was built during the 1950s to produce plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons and is currently focused on cleanup activities related to past work.
