Los Alamos fire chief confident nuclear lab protected for now

As reported by KRQE/KASA t.v. of Albuquerque, the Los Alamos County fire chief has spoken confidently about progress made yesterday in defending Los Alamos National Lab against the encroaching wildfires to its south and west. The Albuerquerque Journal reported similarly, and included a YouTube video from Los Alamos National Lab showing controlled "back burns" on the very edge of its property, intended to starve the wildfires of fuel. The Los Alamos Lab director described feeling the heat of the fire on his face, as he stood atop the roof of the Lab's emergency operations center. Not mentioned was the fact that a "controlled burn" at the nearby Bandelier National Monument in May 2000 got out of control, and whipped up the biggest wildfire in recent history at Los Alamos -- until the current one. Also, Lab officials repeatedly speak of no risk from radioactivity or hazardous chemicals at the Lab. This obscures the fact that parts of Lab property are contaminated -- in both soil and flora -- with radioactive and toxic chemical contamination, which could indeed go up in flames and travel downwind on the smoke clouds. Also, the Lab's storage depot of tens of thousands of 55 gallon drums of plutonium contaminated wastes are catastrophically vulnerable to fire, according to a former Lab security chief, Dr. Walp.

CBS News makes false assurances of safety re: Los Alamos wildfires

A CBS News headline, "Los Alamos fire moves away from nuclear waste," does not even match the story that accompanies it, which makes no such report. The story does contain a number of bland assurances from Los Alamos National Lab officials about the lack of anything to worry about, really, such as "CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that officials there say there was nothing to worry about anyways." The story misleadingly reports:

" 'The bulk of the drums there truly are things like notes that are contaminated, contaminated gloves,' Wallace says.

Those drums are in outdoor domes made of reinforced steel covered with a plasticized fire retardant. But lab officials insist this site and two others containing additional radioactive materials are safe. More radioactive waste is stored in concrete tubes buried deep in the ground; plutonium and uranium are stored in vaults inside hardened concrete buildings."

No mention is made of the fact that those drums could still burst from the heat, and those so-called "low-level" radioactive wastes, those contaminated notes, gloves, tools, etc., are contaminated with ultra-hazardous plutonium, a microscopic dust particle of which inhaled is almost guaranteed to cause lung cancer. Burning such an ultra-hazardous substance, of course, is about the worst possible thing that could be done with it. If it is so harmless, why are the tens of thousands of drum of plutonioum-contaminated military wastes bound for a deep geologic disposal site at Carlsbad, New Mexico?!

Another CBS News headline and story, "Los Alamos fire stokes fear of radioactive smoke," contradict its story above, conveying more about the radioactive wastes and contamination still very much at risk of being overrun by wildfires, as other postings in this section make clear.

Los Alamos wildfire closes in on "major tritium facility"

Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, like Beyond Nuclear an Alliance for Nuclear Accountability member, posted the following alert on the Los Alamos fire at 6:21 p.m. Eastern, Wed., June 29th:

"Please find an attached screen grab [above] of the most recent Las Conchas Fire map. The relevant point is that it looks like fire has been detected in LANL's Technical Area 16 at the far western corner of the Lab. TA-16 has a major tritium facility and a few locations heavily contaminated with high explosives residues. TA-16 is fairly well forested, but its major facilities have been mostly cleared of nearby combustibles.

One can also see that the NW corner (TA-3) of the Lab and the Los Alamos townsite now appear to be under greater threat. TA-3 is the most employee-populated Technical Area and has many major facilities. However, it is not forested around those facilities.

Data is from satellite infrared surveys completed twice a day, which is overlain on a Google Earth map. The apparent detection time of this screen grab is 9:20 [a.m.] MT June 29. However this wasn't posted by the US Forest Service until ~1:30 [p.m.] MT. Detections are said to be 70% confident (for example, smoke can obscure precise locations).

Nuclear Watch New Mexico has a blog piece for how to get and use the updated fire maps.

http://www.nukewatch.org/watchblog/?p=838

Jay

Jay Coghlan, Executive Director
Nuclear Watch New Mexico
551 W. Cordova Rd., #808
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Phone and fax: 505.989.7342 cell: 505.920.7118
jay@nukewatch.org, www.nukewatch.org."

Additional Nuclear Watch New Mexico Fire Watch Updates are viewable at: http://www.nukewatch.org/watchblog/?tag=las-conchas-fire.

Officials throw everything at Los Alamos wildfire in a make it or break it day

MSNBC and AP report that last ditch efforts are underway to halt a wildfire now within 2 miles of a large radioactive waste storage depot housing tens of thousands of 55 gallon drums containing plutonium at Los Alamos nuclear lab in New Mexico. Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) is quoted:

" '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.

About 12,500 residents in and around Los Alamos have been evacuated, an orderly exit that didn't even cause a traffic accident.

Arends' 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."

Los Alamos officials assure that if need be, flame retardant foam can be sprayed on the barrels. The National Nuclear Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and New Mexico Environment Department are setting up scores of air monitors to check for radioactively contaminated smoke, due to the widespread contamination of soil and flora at the Los Alamos National Lab.

CCNS sent out an update on the wildfires at 12:36 a.m., Wed., June 29th.

NBC asks the "What if?" question re: floods at atomic reactors in Nebraska and wildfires at the door of Los Alamos

Despite assurances by industry and government officials that historic flooding at the Ft. Calhoun and Cooper nuclear power plants, and a historic wildfire at Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab, pose no risk of catastrophic radioactivity releases into the environment,  NBC/MSNBC as "what if" the worst happens? They ask "what if?" question about the Los Alamos wildfire to Peter Stockton of Project on Government Oversight, Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and Michio Kaku of City University of New York.