nuclear-news

The two-day-old blaze at the Idaho National Laboratory, an 890-square-mile complex with three active reactors in the high desert of eastern Idaho, presents “no known radiological hazard to the public at this time,” the lab said in a statement.

As the lightning-sparked fire had grown in size and intensity on Thursday evening, about 90 nonessential personnel were ordered out of a facility used for processing spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes.

Workers at another lab installation where spent radioactive fuel rods are cooled in storage ponds were told to take shelter inside due to heavy smoke, a lab official said……

The installation last year grappled with the largest fire in its history, a conflagration that charred 109,000 acres but did not cause major damage.

Fires have charred tens of thousands of acres across Idaho and the Northern Rockies in recent days, including parts of Montana, Yellowstone National Park and northwestern Wyoming…. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/27/us-wildfire-idaho-idUSTRE77P65E20110827