New Mexico is on fire. Los Alamos residents are evacuating

We have at least two nuclear sites in the USA under threat from wide spread natural disasters at this time (fire and flooding).

Some media outlets are openly saying that either one could become "fukushima" worthy if the reactors are damaged.

Originally posted by Pervius
What is there in New Mexico that can burn? Little bit of desert shrubs?

Now there's a NEW Mexico? Gang dang it. What will they think of next?

Thanks chung, they made it out today. I am waiting for the smoke to start comin in now, also we have thunderstorms n possible tornados that were predicted this morning but we shall see. Still hopeful that lanl will post something about whats going on at the labs since msm isnt. It would be interesting to see what is said out of state about it because its pretty tight lipped locally.

Originally posted by Pervius
What is there in New Mexico that can burn? Little bit of desert shrubs?

Actually most of Arizona and New Mexico is grassland and forest. The largest continuous chaparral pine forest in the world stretches through both states.

en.wikipedia.org...

We have sky islands that take you from the desert biome to alpine biome that reach over 10,000" in elevation.

www.terrain.org...
www.saguaro-juniper.com...

Regards and Nameste,

-Chung

The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety said the fire appeared to be about 3.5 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. The group said the drums were awaiting transport to a low-level radiation dump site in southern New Mexico.

Sandoval said the fire was "quite a bit away" from that storage area. But he could not say what would happen if drums containing such waste were to burn.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

REALLY??? Stored in fabric tents? I hope they are scurrying to get the drums of radioactive waste transported just in case.

www.msnbc.msn.com...
just saw this on msnbc.. says officials are on site to monitor plutonium levels, "just as a precaution" oh boy. time to worry yet?


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New Mexico Los Alamos / Los Conchas fire is now the number one priorty fire in the country. That was on the big red ticker on the local news here in Albuquerque Tonight. There is only 350 fire fighters fighting this 66,000 acre blaze and 9 aircraft . This fire is now number one, they are pulling resources and assets from other fires around the county as of now. This means shaf.

Local residents /witnesses are saying the fire was caused by a downed power line.

Four C-130 fire fighting aircraft from the California ANG have just landed at KAFB to fight the fire. More aircraft are on the way from other states. Got that info from a flight briefing late this afternoon for private pilots .Some larger aircraft are down in Mexico fighting some big fires. I guess the Gov is trying to get them here ASAP, but their under contract to the county of Mexico. I think their going to try and get a DC -10 from the AZ fire to make a few runs. I decided to ground myself, the visibility is not good any place in New Mexico.

Now about the barrels in the tents, a local reporter was broadcasting from that very location this afternoon. That Area is not as big as what your lead to believe. I could see the forest in the background and this leads me to believe that those tents will catch fire easy with hot ash, not to mention the temp rise around the tents from the fire.

It did rain today the clouds were big, but the rain never touched the ground. It evaporated , this was really strange, because I was expecting a down pour. It was nothing but dust blowing around, but no rain.

I was down in Sierra Vista today. Hotshots were pulling out and headed north for you guys, you need it!

Then we got the first Monsoon moisture to hit the ground by late afternoon. I went out for a bike ride and over in Sonoita guess what I see...Lightning Caused...

Hope Nueve Mexico gets a good push of moisture, not for lightning...just the rain.

Regards and Nameste,

-Chung