Los Alamos Laboratory: After the Fire
Dateline: 05/11/00
Although the nuclear residue at the Los Alamos National Laboratory will safely survive the wildfire now devouring hundreds of surrounding homes, it will not survive the Department of .Energy's existing plans for cleanup and closure of America's nuclear weapons facilities. (See: Nuclear Weapons: Pay Up to Cleanup, by your About.com Guide.)
According to the Department of Energy's 1998 Paths to Closure report, The Laboratory, established in 1943 to design, develop, and test nuclear weapons, actively processed deadly plutonium metal from 1945 to 1978. Other activities during the same period included reprocessing nuclear fuel, processing polonium and actinium, and producing nuclear weapons components.
Today, the Laboratory continues to do research in fields such as nuclear physics, hydrodynamics, conventional explosives, chemistry, metallurgy, radiochemistry and the life sciences.
Department of Energy plans for cleaning up the Los Alamos Laboratories call for all low-level nuclear waste to be removed by the end of 2003, with all high-level, or transuranic waste to be removed by the end of 2013. Plans also call for an environmental restoration project to be completed during 2009, with up to 7,000 acres currently used by the Laboratory transferred to Los Alamos County for industrial use.
Many residents of the Los Alamos, NM area had long feared radiation from the nuclear leftovers at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos Laboratory would someday drive them from their homes. It must now be bitter irony for them to watch those homes being eaten up by a wildfire mistakenly set by totally different government agency, the National Parks Service.
Reference Links
Incident Management Situation Report
The most current and complete data on each of the fires involved. Data includes estimated containment, personnel and equipment being used, and accumulated costs to fight the fires.
Gives updates on all current U.S. Wildfires and phone numbers to call for additional information.
"Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos schools and county offices (except for emergency services) remain closed."
A detailed presentation of the research now being done at Los Alamos.
Download the entire DOE report on closing down and cleaning up America's nuclear weapons facilities.
Energy Will Help Rebuild Los Alamos
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was quoted on May 11, 2000 as stating that his department would help rebuild the wildfire ravaged town of Los Alamos, New Mexico. From your About.com Guide.
Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM Guide Phyllis Gonzales covers the tragic wildfire from right next door. Get the latest shelter and relief information here.
Total coverage of this disastrous fire from U.S. Current Events Guide Clare Saliba.
Southwest US for Visitors Guide Boise Matthews' personal and lyrical take on the fires. She has also assembled a host of informative links to wildlife articles, ecology and climate backgrounders, and general Los Alamos and area reading.
Composites Guide Berry Berenberg provides updates, maps and more local information on the New Mexico fires.
Report on the scope and cost of the Energy Department's nuclear weapons production clean up project. From your About.com Guide.
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