KNOXVILLE , Tenn (WVLT) -- Hilton Road in West Knoxville is back open this morning after a radiation scare last night.

Tennessee Emergency Management officials went to a trucking company on Middlebrook Pike after an environmental cleanup crew found levels of radiation in a load in one of the trucks there.

The Knoxville Fire Department says the truck was carrying nine basketball-sized spheres filled with radioactive shavings of Cobalt-60.

The load of spheres shifted at the Rodeway terminal at 1212 Hilton Drive, off Middlebrook Pike, and six of the spheres fell out into the back of the truck, although none is cracked open, according to KFD spokesperson D.J. Corcoran.

An environmental cleanup crew detected levels of radioactivity near and inside the truck using specialized equipment around 9:20 p.m., and called for KFD.

"We've set up a perimeter of 30 feet around the truck, and inside there is the 'hot zone,'" Corcoran said. "Luckily Middlebrook Pike is far enough away that there is no threat to traffic or surrounding homes or businesses."

Twelve people were working at the Rodeway facility at the time of the incident and they were evacuated from the building, according to Corcoran.

"None of the workers have shown any signs of illness," Corcoran said.

Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of cobalt. Corcoran says it has a variety of uses, many of which are in the medical field.

"It's used in the medical field, primarily for X-Rays, and to sterilize medical equipment," Corcoran said.

Corcoran says the Berthold Company was transporting the Cobalt.

Berthold Company says there was never a health risk.

VolunteerTV.com was originally told the load came from Oak Ridge.

But Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Public Affairs Director John Shewairy says he was able to confirm that none of the Cobalt-60 was from any DOE facility.

Nonetheless, they sent a team to help.

"We did dispatch a team from the DOE’s Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) in Oak Ridge to the event location," Shewairy. "The team, along with officials from the State of Tennessee who were also on scene, verified that the substance was cobalt-60. The RAP Team verified that it was not a DOE shipment, or in any way connected to DOE."