Fire nears Idaho nuclear fuel development complex

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A fire sweeping across drought-stricken sagebrush and grasslands prompted the closure on Thursday of a nuclear fuel facility at a U.S. Department of Energy research campus in southeast Idaho.

Idaho National Laboratory officials told the 700 employees of the lab's nuclear fuel development complex not to report to work because of the threat posed by the wildfire, which has blazed across nearly 5,000 acres and is within 7 miles of the fuel complex.

It is the first time in recent memory a wildfire has prompted the lab, home to three nuclear reactors, to close facilities on its 890-square-mile (2,300-sq-km) campus.

Spokesman Ethan Huffman said neither the staff nor operations were immediately threatened by the wildfire.

"We have no concern about any radiological release or anything of that nature," he said, adding that buffer zones cleared of brush and piled with sand surround the fuel complex.

Other facilities at the national lab remained open.

With vast stretches of U.S. West ablaze, fire managers raised the national wildland fire preparedness indicator to its highest level on Thursday.

Fire conditions in the region have worsened in recent weeks because of sustained high temperatures, strong winds and storms that have brought lightning but little rain.

"So often this year we've seen thunderstorms that spit out a lot of lightning but no moisture," said Don Smurthwaite, spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center. "The way conditions are now, it's a little like throwing a lighted match on a pile of paper."

Experts have predicted an above-average fire season for the West. On July 5 lightning in the region sparked 1,000 fires in less than 48 hours.

Some 16,000 firefighters are now battling 72 blazes across 1 million acres in 11 Western states, officials say.

The fires have triggered a handful of evacuations in the past two weeks, with extreme fire reported in such states as Idaho and Nevada, where 43 fires have raged across more than 500,000 acres.

In Utah, five wildfires have ravaged 400,000 acres (161,900 hectares), prompting road closures and emptying recreation areas.