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A batch of mail delivered to the Federal Reserve two days ago has tested positive for anthrax exposure, according to the Associated Press.

It was unclear how long the batch had been in the postal system, but Fed spokesman Dave Skidmore said that the mail had arrived at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Skidmore said today that the batch of 100 to 150 letters was being retested letter by letter to try to isolate which pieces of mail had been contaminated with anthrax. He also said officials had found no evidence of anthrax in a test of the Fed building itself on Constitution Avenue or in the courtyard around the Fed’s outside mail processing site.

And today, a top postal official said the Fed mail may have been decontaminated and unable to cause disease.

Postal Service vice president Azeezaly Jaffer said all federal mail is being radiated to sanitize it, rendering the spores harmless. Treated mail can still test positive for anthrax in preliminary tests, he added.

“We have a high degree of confidence that the spores found here, while they may be anthrax spores, having gone through the sanitization process … they cannot cause infection,” Jaffer said.

Meanwhile, batches of mail in New Jersey that were being treated with radiation to eliminate possible anthrax contamination caught fire, apparently because some material overheated, officials said today.

Hundreds of large envelopes and magazines — 90 pounds in all — were destroyed during two small fires, one yesterday and one early today, the Postal Service said, according to AP.

“Our engineers believe both incidents are linked to material present in the mail which cause overheating during radiation exposure,” said John Gilbert, spokesman for Ion Beam Applications, which operates the Bridgeport plant where the irradiation is being done. Officials decline to say what materials might have overheated.

Since mid-November, the plant has been irradiating mail quarantined from the Hamilton Post Office, which closed in October after the office was found to have handled at least four contaminated letters.

On a more positive note, the U.S. Capitol will reopen tomorrow for guided tours for the first time since anthrax-tainted mail was found in a Senate office building in October, the AP said. The announcement was made today by Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s delegate to the House.