A wildfire at the government’s former nuclear testing area in southern Nevada poses no threat of kicking up radiation, federal officials said Saturday.National Nuclear Security Administration spokeswoman Kelly Snyder said the lightning-caused blaze was not burning near any site where 100 above-ground tests left radiation in the soil.

“We have all the locations mapped and know where the contaminated areas are and this fire is not burning near them,” she told the Associated Press. “It’s further than two miles from the nearest impacted soils.”

More than 900 other tests were conducted between 1951 and 1992 at the former Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but the fire would not affect other sites because the tests took place underground, she said.

“Our underground range starts from 90 feet down and obviously fire won’t impact something that far below ground,” she said, adding officials were keeping an eye on radiation levels as a precaution.
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