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.

Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab threatened by wildfire

As reported by CNN, the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico is threatened by nearby wildfires. A massive wildfire in the year 2000 liberated an unknown quantity of radioactive contamination (including plutonium) from the Los Alamos landscape into the air, where it then blew with the wind and fell out over a multi-state region (see satellite photo above). The father of Molly Johnson (an anti-nuke activist with Grandmothers for Peace in California), a pilot of a fire fighting tanker plane, defied orders and dropped his flame retardant on the 2000 wildfire as it encroached very near structures at Los Alamos housing radioactive wastes. Various surface locations at Los Alamos have been severely contaminated with radioactivity over the nearly 70 years that the lab has dabbled in bomb making and other atomic activities.

Update on June 28, 2011 by admin

The Santa Fe New Mexican (dateline June 27th) quotes Los Alamos National Lab officials assuring that radioactive and hazardous chemicals are safe from the raging wildfires nearby, by watchdog groups like CCNS and Nuke Watch challenge that. The Associated Press reported on this story on June 27th, as did the New York Times. 

CCNS sent out an emergency alert last night, Monday, June 27th, at around 10:30 pm Eastern time. It said in part "Our main concern is that the Las Conchas fire is about 3 1/2 miles from Area G, the dumpsite that has been in operation since the late 1950s/early 1960s. There are 20,000 to 30,000 55‐gallons drums of plutonium contaminated waste (containing solvents, chemicals and toxic materials) sitting in fabric tents above ground. These drums are destined for WIPP."

MSNBC has reported that on Monday, what began as a voluntary evacuation of 12,000 Los Alamos town residents became mandatory just a few hours later. Non-essential Lab personnel have now been ordered to stay away from work for the second day (security guards, for example, are considered essential). MSNBC also reported that special monitoring is being carried out to watch for uraniun and plutonium in the air from the fire's smoke.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico has posted updates and analysis on the wildfire's threat to radiological facilities at Los Alamos. It also provides a webform for providing public comment to the Department of Energy regarding its supplemental environmental impact statement for its proposed CMRR (Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project) at Los Alamos, a major new facility for nuclear weapons production. Ironically, the comment deadline is today, amidst the third day of this current wildfire risk. Thanks to Nuke Watch's webform, Beyond Nuclear submitted comments by the deadline.

Update on June 28, 2011 by admin

Santa Fe Public Radio, KSFR, has posted a 4 p.m. Eastern update on its website that the wildfire is still zero percent contained, and is burning in the direction of the Los Alamos National Lab. It also reports that this fire is already bigger than the May 2000 fire near Los Alamos, and could double or triple in size. It also posted a U.S. Forest Service's snapshot map of what the fire looked like earlier today (see above).

One trillion dollars to be spent on nuclear weapons worldwide

Lest anyone thing we are "safer" now from the threat of nuclear weapons since the cold war is over, read on: The Financial Times reported today that, according to Global Zero, the world's nine nuclear weapons countries (US, Russia, China, France, UK, India, Pakisan, North Korea, Israel) will spend one trillion dollars on their atomic weapons programs over the next decade. Despite the much-trumpted START ratification by the US and Russia; and Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, after his famous Prague speech, more money than ever is being spent on nuclear weapons globally. This is due to the so-called weapons "modernization" programs. Global Zero founder, Bruce Blair, told the FT: "Spending will increase because of decisions by both nations [US and Russia] to upgrade and replace. Modernization is progressing at such a pace we are seeing more spending on nuclear weapons than at any time since the cold war."

Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology)" turns 40 on June 10th

Marvin Gaye was a wee bit ahead of the curve when he wrote his environmental anthem "Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology)," released as the #2 track on his What's Going On album on June 10, 1971:

"Woo ah, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east
Woo mercy, mercy me, mercy father
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury
Ah oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?
Oh, na na...
My sweet Lord... No
My Lord... My sweet Lord"

Although Gaye's reference to radiation almost certainly alluded to nuclear weapons testing, it certainly resonates still, given what's happening at Fukushima Daiichi, as well as commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe (Tim Mousseau's ornithological studies in the Chernobyl Dead Zone show that indeed, "animals and birds who live nearby are dying"), not to mention "Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas" from the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster a year ago, and "fish full of mercury" from the continued burning of coal.