NEW YORK, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- A fire at a federal nuclear facility in the U.S. state of South Carolina triggered an emergency response on Wednesday, but it was later extinguished and no contamination was reported, officials said.
The emergency was declared at 5:39 p.m. local time (2139 GMT) after the fire broke out at the Savannah River National Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS).
"The fire has since been extinguished. No contamination has been reported outside the affected facility," the SRS said in a statement on social media.
The incident prompted a temporary shutdown of traffic at the facility's entrances, according to the statement.
Traffic via rail, river, and air in the facility's vicinity was placed under restriction. Employees who were not involved in emergency response or shutdown operations were also sheltered as a precaution.
The emergency was terminated at 9:45 p.m. local time (0145 GMT Thursday), an update said later.
The Savannah River Site was built in the 1950s to produce tritium and plutonium for U.S. nuclear weapons. It is currently used for environmental stewardship and cleanup, along with nuclear waste management and disposition of nuclear materials, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. ■
