A fire at a laboratory inside South Carolina’s sprawling Department of Energy nuclear complex prompted an emergency declaration Wednesday and sent one employee to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.

The Savannah River Site declared a Site Area Emergency at 5:39 p.m. after the blaze erupted at the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken, according to the Department of Energy.

Officials put out the fire, and one employee was transported to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries, a DOE spokesperson told Fox News.

“No radiological contamination has been reported,” the spokesperson said.

An SRS notification later said there were “currently no operational emergencies or scheduled delays” at the site.

Officials had temporarily blocked entrances as a precaution, but vehicle traffic resumed, according to the Savannah River Site.

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Employees working shifts who had been instructed to shelter in place were also cleared to resume normal duties.

Earlier, the site had announced restrictions affecting rail, river and air traffic in the surrounding area.

SRS officials are coordinating the response, while relevant state and local agencies have been notified.

Residents in nearby communities were urged to follow local radio and television coverage for further updates and instructions from state authorities.

The Savannah River Site is a major part of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and has supported the U.S. military’s strategic deterrence mission for more than 75 years, according to the facility’s website.

The installation handles nuclear materials and radioactive waste, while its cleanup programs are intended to safeguard the surrounding environment, the Department of Energy said.

“While serving as one of the nation’s most critical pieces in the weapons complex, the site is also one of the safest major industrial sites in the world. Ensuring national security, protecting workers, the public, and the environment, are our highest goals,” the SRS website states.

Built in the 1950s, the facility originally included five reactors designed to produce materials for nuclear weapons, chiefly tritium and plutonium-239. The complex also featured support infrastructure, including two chemical separation plants.

After years of requests from devoted cereal fans, Cheerios is introducing a new way to keep breakfast fresh: resealable cereal bags created in partnership with Ziploc PantrySeal.

The collaboration addresses a familiar household routine. According to Cheerios, 90% of cereal eaters do more than simply fold the box shut to protect freshness, including folding, rolling or clipping the inner bag—or moving the cereal into a separate container.

“General Mills has received letters, emails and DMs asking for an easier way to reseal a cereal box, and we decided it was time to partner with the ultimate freshness brand: Ziploc,” Emilie Knox, vice president and business unit director for Cheerios at General Mills, said. “Cheerios with Ziploc PantrySeal takes a small, everyday cereal frustration and finally gives consumers the simple solution they’ve been asking for, making the whole routine easier and more enjoyable.”

The updated bag is designed to open only partway along the top, creating a convenient pour spout that makes serving cereal easier for the entire family. Once breakfast is served, the Cheerios with Ziploc PantrySeal bag can be closed again inside the box to help preserve freshness.

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Cheerios with Ziploc PantrySeal is arriving in the cereal aisle as a new packaging option for both original Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios.

The resealable cereal bags are being made exclusively in Buffalo, New York—the same city where Cheerios was first produced in 1941.

A fire at the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina prompted a temporary “radiological release” emergency Wednesday evening, leading officials to halt rail, river and air traffic around the facility.

The fire started shortly before 5:40 p.m. in a single room at the nuclear research facility, according to officials. Crews brought the blaze under control in under two hours.

Although authorities reported no contamination beyond the building involved, the incident resulted in an “unfiltered ground-level radiological release,” WRDW reported, citing the Savannah River Site, or SRS.

People working in the Area A laboratory complex were ordered to shelter in place behind barricades for roughly 30 minutes, sources told the local news station.

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SRS said in a statement that employees not participating in emergency response efforts or shutdown procedures were also sheltered as a precaution.

Authorities temporarily restricted rail, river and air movement near the site. Entrances to the complex were also closed to incoming traffic, the Department of Energy said.

The Savannah River Site covers about 310 square miles across multiple South Carolina counties. The sprawling Department of Energy complex includes the Savannah River National Laboratory, where the fire occurred.

According to the local outlet, the laboratory specializes in nuclear environmental cleanup and related technologies. The broader site serves both as a major cleanup operation and as an active center for national security research and nuclear science.

A former Google AI employee has been charged with allegedly assaulting a female colleague after the pair traveled to Minnesota for a wedding, prosecutors said.

Antony Sun Liwanag, of San Francisco, faces two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct over an incident reported in St Louis Park on July 2, 2026, according to court documents obtained by FOX 9.

The woman told police she had traveled to the area for a coworker’s wedding and attended a gathering at a local bar before the event.

Liwanag, who was also her coworker, attended the gathering and invited her to continue the evening at another bar, the outlet reported.

She agreed, and the two went to a second location. Court records say they sat at a table near the back while Liwanag, 33, obtained drinks for them.

But after having several drinks, the woman said she began “feeling out of it and very intoxicated.” She told authorities she believed her drinks may have been spiked, according to the report.

According to the charges, Liwanag later began kissing her without consent. The woman said she tried to push him away and told him no.

Liwanag, who previously worked for the AI research laboratory Google DeepMind, allegedly reached beneath the woman’s dress and touched her with his fingers while she was trapped between him and a wall, court documents said.

The charges state that Liwanag ordered an Uber to take them to her hotel in the Minneapolis suburb. During that time, the woman allegedly tried to tell him she did not want to go, but struggled to control her body and collapsed outside the bar.

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Hotel surveillance footage reportedly showed the pair arriving, with the woman appearing extremely impaired and unable to walk without assistance, according to the documents.

Liwanag was allegedly seen lifting her and carrying her toward her room. At one point, the charges say, he dragged her to an elevator as she appeared to go limp.

Prosecutors allege that Liwanag attempted to sexually assault her again inside the hotel room. The woman managed to push him away and resist, according to the charges.

The woman returned home the following day and did not attend the wedding, court documents stated.

Authorities have requested an arrest warrant for Liwanag, saying they believe he poses a danger to public safety, according to the charges.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Liwanag worked in strategy and operations at Google DeepMind after spending nearly three years at YouTube.

He also previously held strategy and operations roles at Google and Southern California Edison.

A Google spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Mail on Wednesday that Liwanag “no longer works here,” but declined to provide additional details.

The Daily Mail contacted Liwanag for comment.

Several Americans are believed to be among those injured in a high-speed train collision in Spain that killed at least 68 people Wednesday. The crash occurred when one train struck another that had stopped on the tracks.

The collision happened in Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region. Regional officials confirmed the death toll and said 58 additional people were taken to hospitals for treatment. The State Department said several Americans are believed to have been injured.

Rescue crews continued searching the wreckage for survivors and victims as witnesses described a horrific scene.

The disaster marks Spain’s second high-speed rail crash of the year.

Rail operator ADIF said the crash occurred Wednesday morning in Toledo province. Both trains were carrying hundreds of passengers and traveling in the same direction on the route between Madrid and Seville.

A state-owned RENFE train struck the rear of a stopped IRYO train, operated by a private company, sending two IRYO cars off the tracks. The same companies were involved in a January crash.

Esther Padilla, a spokesperson for the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, said the RENFE train had 397 passengers aboard, while 147 people were traveling on the IRYO train.

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente blamed what he called an “inexplicable” decision by the country’s central rail control center to allow a train to resume service after a safety system malfunctioned.

Puente said the train’s engineers were not at fault for the collision.

According to Puente, a computer failure disabled a safety system covering approximately 39 miles of track at around 8:30 a.m.

The outage brought trains in the affected area to a stop. However, Puente said the central control center later authorized the RENFE train to continue without imposing a speed restriction.

A little more than 20 minutes later, the RENFE train slammed into the stationary IRYO train.

Puente said the RENFE train should not have been cleared to proceed while a stop signal remained active. At the very least, he said, it should have been ordered to travel at a reduced speed.

Investigators have yet to establish how fast the train was traveling when it crashed, though Puente said its speed may have been about 124 mph.

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David Gómez, a construction worker, told the newspaper El País that he was working nearby with his brother and another colleague when they heard the crash and rushed to help.

“People were trying to get out through the windows.… We cut through some fences to access the area and treated people with the first-aid kits we had brought,” he said. “As I was trying to pull a young woman out, there was a piece of a leg.”

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said the injured are being sent to different hospitals in the area.

“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the crash site and announced that his government would declare three days of national mourning.

“Today all of Spain is grieving,” Sánchez said.

The prime minister also called for enhanced safety measures across the country’s rail system following the second high-speed rail crash this year.

“It is unacceptable for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year,” he said.

Passenger Ignacio Relaño was traveling on the RENFE train. He told state broadcaster TVE that the train had stopped momentarily on the line before it started again and then crashed into the IRYO.

“We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact,” he said. “The car leaned to one side like it was about to tip over. I hit my nose, everything went flying, luggage, cellphones. Everything shook.”

Another passenger recounted to Cadena Ser radio how she felt the train slam on the brakes and was thrown forward in her seat, breaking the small table in front of her. She said she saw body parts and trapped people covered in blood.

IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said in a short statement on X that they were following news of the accident.

“We are deeply saddened and concerned by the train accident in Urda (Toledo),” the royal couple said. “We share in the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and we send our heartfelt support to the injured and all those affected.”