Tennessee Nuclear Weapons Plant Responds to Rubber Shop Fire

Authorities were searching for the cause of a fire in a shop at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that forced the evacuation of 95 workers, but caused no injuries.

A National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman said the Aug. 4 fire was extinguished at 8:23 a.m. in a small building that produces rubber parts for shipping containers and molds for pressing operations. Two workers were evaluated for injuries but found to be unharmed.

The emergency was declared over at 10:29 a.m. and crews were cleaning up the debris.

The Y-12 plant, about 20 miles west of Knoxville, makes uranium parts for every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal and is the country’s main respository for bomb-grade uranium.