3 people exposed to radioactive material at secretive U.S. nuclear factory –The incident was one of two safety lapses revealed at the sprawling nuclear complex that week. | 31 July 2026 | Radioactive contamination mysteriously spread beyond a restricted laboratory at one of America’s largest nuclear complexes, triggering alarms as three workers attempted to leave. Tests detected radioactive material on the soles of their shoes emitting between 80,000 and 300,000 disintegrations per minute, levels that exceeded federal contamination limits. The alarming incident unfolded at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, which processes tritium and manages plutonium infrastructure vital to America’s nuclear stockpile. It was quietly disclosed in a federal safety report covering the week ending June 26 but was not publicly announced by site officials at the time. Investigators later discovered contamination outside areas intended to contain it but were unable to determine precisely where the material came from or how it spread.