Wildfire sparks nuclear fears in Los Alamos, N.M.Solomon Bandaand Susan Montoya Bryan
June 28
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — A wildfire burning near the desert birthplace of the atomic bomb advanced on the Los Alamos laboratory and
thousands of outdoor drums of plutonium-contaminated waste Tuesday as authorities stepped up efforts to protect the site and
monitor the air for radiation.Officials at the nation’s premier nuclear weapons lab gave assurances that dangerous materials were safely stored and capable of withstanding flames from the 93-square-mile fire, which at midday was as
close as 50 feet from the grounds.
A vicious wildfire spread through the mountains above Los Alamos, New Mexico, driving thousands of people from their homes as officials at a government nuclear laboratory tried to dispel concerns about the safety of sensitive materials. (June 28)
A wildfire is burning in Northern New Mexico - dangerously close to the nation's premier nuclear facility.
.A small patch of land at the laboratory caught fire Monday before firefighters quickly put it out. Teams were on high alert to pounce on any new blazes and spent the day removing brush and low-hanging tree limbs from the lab’s perimeter.
“We are throwing absolutely everything at this that we got,” Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said in Los Alamos.
The fire has forced the evacuation of the entire city of Los Alamos, population 11,000, cast giant plumes of smoke over the region and
raised fears among nuclear watchdogs that it will reach as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste.
“The concern is that these drums will get so hot that they’ll burst. That would put this toxic material into the plume. It’s a concern for everybody,” said Joni Arends, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, an anti-nuclear group.
Arends’s organization also
worried that the fire could stir up nuclear-contaminated soil on lab property where experiments were conducted years ago. Burrowing animals have brought that contamination to the surface, she said.
Lab officials said there was very little risk of the fire reaching the drums of low-level nuclear waste, since the flames would have to jump through canyons first.
Lab spokeswoman Lisa Rosendorf said the drums contain Cold War-era waste that the lab sends away in weekly shipments for storage. She said the drums were on a paved area with few trees nearby. As of midday Tuesday, the
flames were about two miles from the material.
“These drums are designed to a safety standard that would withstand a wildland fire worse than this one,” Rosendorf said.
Los Alamos employs about 15,000 people, covers more than 36 square miles, includes about 2,000 buildings at nearly four dozen sites and plays a vital role in the nation’s nuclear program.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2011/06/28/AGMql1pH_story.html
