Fires Enter Los Alamos Lab Complex .. Zero Containment..Nuke Material At Risk & Others...???!

Sorry to report guys, that the Weather Channel just had a segment on how wild fires are now within the boundaries of the Los Alamos Laboratory Complex in New Mexico.(June 27, 2011) 6:15 pm central time. According to the report, nuclear material on site may be affected by the blazes. According to reports there is zero containment at this time. Unbelievable!

What also concerns me is that Los Alamos contains all kinds of questionable stuff in their labs! This is no run of the mill lab, it's a major Military Research Facility. God only knows what all is in there that could be affected if the fires get to the buildings!

As always, if you can provide a link to more info, it is greatly appreciated in an effort to provide the most current info on the situation! This is OUR thread, not mine! Thanks to everyone who can provide additional info as this situation progresses!

Residents in the area have been asked to evacuate. Thoughts and prayers to all affected. Stay safe everyone!

Please keep this thread going so people know what's going on. Due to a bad situation which I cannot get into, This will be my last night on ATS. I've enjoyed my interactions with all of you here! Peace

reply to post by kissitgoodbye


If a forest fire could affects this, we are seriously in trouble as a nation!

BTW don't they keep the sensitive material underground. . . I was there 2 weeks ago and this just seems like some reporter needed something interesting to write about today.

How completely is Los Alamos surrounded? I just hope they have helicopters to transport sensitive materials in case there's no escape route. If there's no escape route, then that looks suspicious to me and calls for an investigation.

Read on the lab's website earlier, theres a few live viruses in there too GL all

reply to post by kissitgoodbye


Well first of all, Los Alamos is in New Mexico, not Arizona. I'm sure that this is just a minor typo on your behalf.
No worries, I make mistakes often. I thought I should point that out though for accuracy. Secondly, a good deal
of the complex is below ground where it would not be affected by fire. However, the intake air filtration could be
influenced by the wildfire smoke. As long as it has been maintained properly there shouldn't really be any issues.
Maybe we should do a rain dance for all the good people out there. God knows they need it.

Heres the news report w/ video from CNN

www.cnn.com...

Originally posted by celticpride
Read on the lab's website earlier, theres a few live viruses in there too

GL all

So what, fire burns viruses. So no problem there.

EDIT : wrong... Los Alamos is currently building a Level 3 laboratory, not done yet, so, AS FAR AS WE KNOW, there's no virus there.

reply to post by Wildmanimal


Thanks for pointing out my OOPS! I fixed it right away! You were right it was a typo. What I like is that guys like you can add additional info regarding the labs that others may not know(such as me) to help us feel better about the situation.

I guess we will all have to wait and see what happens. From what I saw tho, it sounded like the nuke material that they were worried about was above ground and could be affected by the fires if they reached the storage area.

Thanks so much for your important input to this topic! Stay Save!

Yeah it's getting pretty bad down here with all the fires. I live in Los Lunas, NM and the bosque was on fire yesterday, further south of us but i'm pretty sure they got it contained.

No fireworks for us this year

I hadn't heard anything about the nuclear material being at risk until now though. I haven't seen any local media report on it.

If the lies start coming from the government concerning this, i'm definitley going to take a closer look.

Maybe John McCain might elaborate on who started this fire next!

I blame China!

Seriously, Los Alamos is highly sensitive and likely those white-coats there will grab their precious "babies" out of the lab and store them in a cooler and head out of town. Of course they will probably also forget which cooler is which and the Zombies will finally come to life!

It is kind of odd to have such a research facility in the heart of a forest!

Here is an update: Los Alamos Labs

About one acre burned and the Lab has detected no off-site releases of contamination. No other fires are currently burning on Lab property, no facilities face immediate threat, and all nuclear and hazardous materials are accounted for and protected. Environmental sites are being monitored and air quality experts are coordinating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A report from the Malaysian Insider...anyone else familiar with this source - I am not?

SANTA FE, June 28 — A raging wildfire yesterday briefly entered the property of the preeminent US nuclear facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory, a vast complex that houses research laboratories and a plutonium facility.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered for the town of Los Alamos, which has a population of about 12,000. The speed at which the fire has grown surprised fire officials.

The laboratory, which ensures the safety and reliability of the US nuclear stockpile, is a national security research facility located in the Jemez mountains of northern New Mexico.

It was set up in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic bomb and still maintains the nation’s largest nuclear weapons arsenal.

Firefighters were able to douse flames on a one-acre “spot fire” just inside the southwestern boundary of the lab site, about 40 km outside Santa Fe, authorities said.

Buildings still have not been touched by flames, and authorities said there was little threat to sensitive areas of the 28,000-acre complex.

The laboratory’s plutonium facility is on the northeast side of the complex, while the fire seems to be moving south and east, said lab spokesman Kevin Roark.

“The facility is very well protected from any kind of wild land fire threat,” said Roark. He said the facility survived a May 2000 wildfire that claimed some lab buildings and did more than US$1 billion (RM3 billion) in damage.

Explosive materials on the laboratory’s grounds are stored safely in underground bunkers made of concrete and steel, as well as earthen berms, Roark said.

“This fire is going to be with us for a while. It has the potential to double and triple in size,” Los Alamos Fire Chief Doug Tucker said.

Nuclear watchdog groups are keeping a close eye on the fire, said Jay Coughlin, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico. — Reuters

Source

reply to post by theendisnear69

Kob channel 4 is reporting that nothing is in danger.

Thanks everyone for all the posts and updates. I worry about the accuracy of local news down playing the severity after seeing how my local media down played the floods in Nebraska and around Minot. National Media is just as bad if not worse! In my opinion!

Keep the updates coming... We need to know what's really going on, especially to help those of you who live in the area of the fires and aren't getting accurate reporting who come here for answers. Stay safe everybody!

Well i think i will be the first who will say, Helloooooo Zombie virus, Helloooo shotgun , no but really this is shocking if they just ignore this and let the fire catch the lab, some new virus gets out in the world and all they say is "whoops, lets make som vaccins ..."

There is really a NUCLEAR threat to this.

Wildfire shuts Los Alamos lab, forces evacuations

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.

Plutonium will stay in the environment for 242 000 years since it has a half-life of 24 200 years. So... yeah, better hope fires don't reach that area or all hell will break loose and it won't be pretty.

IMO there's no way in HELL that if fires decide to go in that direction that it will be either stopped in time, or the drums can be evacuated in time. No way in hell.

Better hope the fires stop/move in another direction or it's gonna be the worst disaster to hit the US.

Originally posted by Greensage
Maybe John McCain might elaborate on who started this fire next!

I blame China!

Seriously, Los Alamos is highly sensitive and likely those white-coats there will grab their precious "babies" out of the lab and store them in a cooler and head out of town. Of course they will probably also forget which cooler is which and the Zombies will finally come to life!

It is kind of odd to have such a research facility in the heart of a forest!

Here is an update: Los Alamos Labs

About one acre burned and the Lab has detected no off-site releases of contamination. No other fires are currently burning on Lab property, no facilities face immediate threat, and all nuclear and hazardous materials are accounted for and protected. Environmental sites are being monitored and air quality experts are coordinating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

No "off-site" releases. Was something released "on-site"?

reply to post by kissitgoodbye


Hmm. Im just surprised they are unprepared. A large fire raged through there a couple years back and did some pretty serious damage and got people concerned about some stuff they had in barrels in a dump yard.

Its New Mexico. Its been in a prolonged drought. We have fires there every single year somewhere in the state. There really is no excuse for them to not have some sort of preparation to protect the place. Well, except for the excuse that rich morons run ads about how worthless and money wasting all research of any kind is, and how we should cut funding for all research facilities rather than raise taxes on the super wealthy and the corporations who consume tax dollars like its candy.

I guess that could be an excuse.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Thanks for the update as freightening as it is.
No sheids of protection for the waste I suppose -
not that I think that is going to work for the plant
either. This event must be changing by the
minute - how high are the winds and what
direction might they be directed right now?

reply to post by Vitchilo


Fire burns bacteria, doesn't technically kill viruses, just puts them into suspended animation, they turn into crystals until hydrated and optimal growth conditions are restored...unless the fire gets to 1000's of degrees.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Some of the viruses they are playing with include HIV, Hepatitis C, Marberg virus or Hemorrhagic fever...they map flu's and create hybrids....
www.lanl.gov...
You can go onto their website and put 'viruses' into their search engine...these I've mentioned are just on the first page of results back