Wildfire threatens Los Alamos National Lab

Wildfire threatens Los Alamos National Lab

edition.cnn.com

The Los Conchas fire, which flared up Sunday afternoon, was reported to be less than a mile from the lab's southwestern boundaries late Sunday, another statement from the facility said.

"All radioactive and hazardous material is appropriately accounted for and protected," the lab said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

www.lanl.gov...


Haven't seen this posted yet so I thought i would throw it up.

Looks like a fairly serious issue. However they had a fire over ten years ago which did damage too.

I'm guessing they will be handle this as it would be a known threat.

news.cnet.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

edition.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

live stream of fire in the area.

www.emergencystream.com...

www.emergencystream.com...

In New Mexico, we are in an "Exceptional Drought". We've been breathing smoke for about a month now... It's pretty bad. I am so disappointed to hear that we have another big fire... I hope they get this one out soon...

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I Lived in the Jemez for 20+ years. Many of my friends have evacuated and left their pets at my house here in the Rio Grande Valley. From my place in the Valley I can see the huge smoke cloud form 60 mi. away. The smoke from 2 forest fires and one bosque fire is beginning to make some folks have respiratory problems; especially around Santa Fe.

Another live feed from Pajarito mt. www.skipajarito.com...

Pray for rain!

What no DOOM and GLOOM on how the radioactivity is going to escape and turn everybody into worse mutants! Sorry factual threads are kinda new here recently

reply to post by whaaa


Well, I don't pray, but I sure feel for you up there and I hope they get this under control soon. I think you definitely have it worse than I do...

I just learned yesterday that my town is going to allow fireworks this year... How stupid are people??? It infuriates me. We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow. You may get some on Friday... Come on monsoons! Now is the time!

Here's a good video of what's happening....

www.youtube.com...

The latest from reuters..

Wildfire spreads to within one mile of Los Alamos lab

A raging wildfire has spread to within one mile of the nation's preeminent nuclear weapons facility, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, authorities said on Monday.

The blaze has grown to 43,597 acres and caused the evacuation of hundreds of people, with thousands encouraged to evacuate voluntarily.

today's conditions:

Red flag conditions, the highest fire alert, are expected to feed the growing blaze throughout the day.

Looks like a tough battle on their hands.


whaaa, stay alert and stay safe!

Up until this fire....The Cerro Grande Fire was a disastrous forest fire in New Mexico, that fire occurred in May 2000. The fire started as a controlled burn, and became uncontrolled owing to high winds and drought conditions. Over 400 families in the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico lost their homes... I was there then no I didn't lose my place... but it was a close thing.... we locals still joke about how the forest service, who set this fire successfully attacked an American city....

I've long since moved away but let me tell ya... you would not want to be in Los Alamos during a fire...
Take a look at this map Really there is one main road in and out... if you got cut off you'd be trapped in there and despite being New Mexico... that's not desert up there... the whole town is surrounded by Lodge pole pines that love to explode when they catch fire

reply to post by mikellmikell


Radiation has been pouring out of Japan for over three months now... no one cares about that either. Besides don't you know radiation is good for you?

But I hope they got the saucers to safety

"Overnight winds from the northwest kept the blaze from moving onto lab property, though forecasts called for a change in wind patterns by midday.

The famed northern New Mexico lab, where scientists developed and tested the first atomic bomb during the Second World War, activated its emergency operations centre overnight and cut natural gas to some areas as a precaution."


www.cbc.ca...

Lets see if I can get this current Vid to work
By the way it's not just Los Alamos but the bed room community of White Rock too
the city of Santa Fe .... a half hour drive down the mountain...will be taking in refugees

THanks for vid update daddybare.

Looks like it may be getting a little more serious. Just seen this update. Doesn't sound too good.

www.lamonitor.com...

Los Alamos County officials are reporting that the Las Conchas Wildfire is now threatening Los Alamos.

They are ordering a mandatory evacuation which will begin and proceed in this order:

Group 1: Western, Quemazon, Ponderosa;

Group 2: North Community, Barranca Mesa, North Mesa;

Group 3: East of Diamond and the remainder of the town site. White Rock is NOT being evacuated at this time. Residents in Los Alamos should NOT go to White Rock to stay in case it is later evacuated.

reply to post by JohnySeagull


Sounds like the very same path the Cerro Grande Fire took back in 2000...
lots of those homes had metal roofs put on after the last big fire... but watching the homes go up in Cerro Grande Fire what happened wasn't the roof that caught... those embers got in under the eves setting the attics afire from the inside... yuppers everyone's got soffit vents and roof jacks... just what you don't want ... when the air filled with burning embers

"The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, however, said the fire appeared to be about 3 1/2 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.

Lab spokesman Steve Sandoval declined to confirm that there were any such drums currently on the property. He acknowledged that low-level waste is at times put in drums and regularly taken from the lab to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project site in Carlsbad.

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...

the article says there was a small spot fire on the site that was contained and no haz materials were damaged. thats some good news.

then you go on to read about the waste storage. doesn't sound like great storage system for contaminated waste.

Short video and article. They cannot promise it wont get the lab but they are well prepared.

I would be hopeful they can keep the lab area under control.

www.bbc.co.uk...

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?

there seems to be a lot of people popping up now and screaming about nuclear waste about to go on fire.

it seems to be faily well under control from what i can see.

they have even set off a controlled fire around the perimiter to help prevent a larger blaze.

abcnews.go.com...

Ya know... when I woke up this morning I checked the Los Alamos live web cam...
looks like the fire has moved off... cant tell from the cam where it went... maybe towards Whiterock down the hill or up and over the hill Fenton lake to the southwest, there's a summer nudist colony there... or... North West to Dulce... famous for the underground UFO base rumor...