The fire alarm in one of our labs incorrectly activated. There was no fire. The incident did not result in harm to any person or any ingestion of radioactivity. No radioactive contamination was spread outside the facility, which has also been confirmed by measurements. In accordance to applicable rules and procedures the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has been notified. Additional investigations are being conducted.
The fire-extinguishing system in the labs is completely automated and designed to release gas to quickly put out a fire without damaging to the facility and its barriers. When the fire alarm was incorrectly activated the fire suppression system worked as intended and shut down ventilation while adding gas (INERGEN) to suppress oxygen levels far below what is required for a fire. A side effect of this gas injection is a pressure increase in the room. This led to a small amount of radioactive dust being pushed into adjacent rooms where elevated levels of radioactivity were observed. The laboratories are built to manage radioactive material on this scale. Clean-up work has begun and it is expected to take about two weeks before the laboratory returns normal operation again.