Eight employees were transported to local hospitals after a chemical exposure incident Tuesday evening at Constellation’s Byron Clean Energy Center, a nuclear power plant in Byron, Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle said.

Constellation released a statement about the incident Tuesday evening in which it said workers were transported to hospitals “as a precaution” after “a small amount of a common non-radiological chemical used in plant systems escaped a holding tank in the turbine building.”

“Byron’s highly trained response teams took appropriate steps to contain the leak quickly and ensure potentially impacted workers received appropriate medical attention,” the statement said. “While this event does not impact public health or safety, we will continue to keep Byron workers and community stakeholders informed.”

The Ogle County Sheriff’s Office was called at 5:03 p.m. regarding the chemical exposure at the plant at 4405 N. German Church Road. The Byron Fire Protection District responded and the call was elevated after reports of multiple affected individuals. VanVickle said all reported injuries were chemical-related and are believed to be minor in nature.

The sheriff said there have been unconfirmed reports of “a handful” of other employees who transported themselves to the hospital for treatment of injuries. All injured individuals are employees or contractors of Constellation; no first responders were injured, VanVickle said.

There was no threat to the public or the plant’s operations due to the incident, VanVickle said.

Hazardous material teams from Winnebago, Boone and Ogle counties were called to the scene and were inside the plant working as of 7:30 p.m., VanVickle said.

“Fire departments train for situations like this and they have all the equipment in place to go in safely with proper personal protective equipment in place and bottled oxygen to breathe off of,” VanVickle said. “They’re going through the building and making sure there’s nobody else affected and taking readings and making sure the air is safe for people.”

One reactor at the Byron nuclear plant is currently shut down for scheduled maintenance.

Ogle County first responders regularly train for incidents at the Byron nuclear plant, VanVickle said.

“It’s fortunate for us in the all-hazard world that it doesn’t matter what the title at the top of the page is, the process from the command staff all looks the same,” VanVickle said. “We’re able to get the right pieces in place and make sure the situation is handled. From the command staff side what we did here today is exactly what we do for things like our annual NRC testing for the plant or for a weather event. It’s the same process. We just have to know the right players to get in place. That’s what we did today.”

VanVickle said the chemical exposure incident saw “significant” mutual-aid EMS response, with “well over” 15 ambulances along with hazmat response and more.

“Mutual aid is how we survive in this rural area,” VanVickle said. “We’re not big enough to do it all ourselves. Today is a good example of how we have to help our neighbors. Whether it’s a chemical incident at a nuclear power plant or something else, nobody is big enough to handle a problem by themselves when it becomes a significant impact. Mutual aid is huge and it’s something we’ve stressed a lot.”