The Las Conchas fire,which has burned 49,000 acres in New Mexico,is threatening a major nuclear weapons facility,Los Alamos National Laboratory.Officials at the lab say the radioactive materials are safe,although about one acre of the lab property was scorched Monday afternoon.Tech Area 49,a former radioactive explosives test site and now a training facility,was quickly extinguished.No off-site releases of contamination were detected by lab personnel.
The lab will remain closed Wednesday to all non-essential workers.The 12,000 residents of Los Alamos are under a mandatory evacuation order.No fires burned on lab property Monday night,and all hazardous material was accounted for and protected.There are reportedly 20,000 barrels of nuclear waste stored at the lab,but the lab takes great pains to make sure it is protected and locked in concrete and steel vaults,and the fire poses little threat to them,said lab spokesman Steve Sandoval.
The lab has a wildland fire helicopter landing pad with water tanks.It is conducting aerial reconnaissance of the fire area.Ground crews and airdrops had extinguished the Area 49 blaze in a matter of hours.The lab also has a meteorological team that is closely watching wind and weather conditions as the fire rages through the Jemez mountains outside the lab's western boundary.The lab is located 35 miles NW of Santa Fe.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security.It is operated by a consortium of private and public entities,including Bechtel National,the University of California,Babcock&Wilcox and the Department of Energy.
The lab enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile,developing technologies to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and solving problems related to energy,the environment,infrastrucure,health and global security concerns.
There are 11,782 employees at the lab,with a guard force of 497.Of its 2 billion annual funding,51% is spent on Nuclear National Security Administration weapons programs.The NNSA manages and secures nuclear weapons,oversees non-proliferation efforts and U.S. Navy shipboard reactors.It has emergency response capability both at home and abroad,and safeguards nuclear weapon,component and special nuclear material transport by heavily guarded truck convoy.
Critics have produced a photo supposedly depicting hundreds of nuclear waste barrels exposed to open air at the lab.These could burst open if embers from the fire land on them,a nuclear physicist pointed out.
LANL sprawls across 36 square miles.Home to the World War II Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bombs,the facility contains 2,000 buildings.A glowing orange light engulfed the nearby Jemez mountains as the fire belched a huge smoke plume.Senator Tom Udall,D-New Mexico,was carefully monitoring the situation of his constituency,listening to lab briefings on Tuesday.
Local officials said there is no guarantee the fire won't spread across the sensitive lab property.
Update:By Wednesday morning,the fire had consumed 61,000 acres.It was 3% contained.The outlook wasn't good because of the hot,dry forecast.
Los Alamos Fire Chief Doug Tucker explained that the barrels being stored in the open air,under canvas tents,were low level nuclear waste.The barrels were vented and equipped with HEPA filters.Should the fire approach them,however,firefighters would spray the barrels with protective foam.
Update 2:As of late Thursday,the Las Conchas fire had burned 93,678 acres,touching the southern border of LANL and coming near the lab's western border.More than 1200 firefighters with 52 engines were working the blaze in high winds.
The fire was on Santa Fe National Forest,Jemez Ranger District,but was believed to have started on private property.No homes are thought to have been lost.
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