Los Alamos nuclear lab closes as forest fire looms
Los Alamos nuclear lab closes as forest fire looms
9 May 2000
published by www.planetark.org
LOS ALAMOS – The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico was closed down on Monday and hundreds of people were evacuated from nearby homes as a forest fire raged perilously close to the top secret U.S. facility.
Public schools in the city of Los Alamos were closed and about 500 homes were evacuated as a precaution. There were no reports of injuries or damage to buildings but authorities said it might take several more days to control the blaze.
Los Alamos National Laboratory Director John Browne said that by Monday afternoon the fire was just 200 yards from the edge of the laboratory’s huge grounds but still several miles from the laboratory’s plutonium facility.
“The fire is close enough that it concerns me,” he told a news conference.
Brown said he had decided to close the laboratory down on Sunday evening out of concern for the safety of the 10,000 to 12,000 people who work their each day.
Except for emergency personnel, staff were advised to stay at home through local media reports.
Officials said some 500 people drawn from local, state and federal agencies were battling the blaze with the aid of fire trucks, bulldozers and aircraft.
Drought and high winds have helped the fire spread but additional manpower and hardware is due to arrive on Tuesday.
Efforts were concentrated on preventing the fire from crossing Highway 501 which runs along the western edge of the laboratory’s grounds.
“Hopefully in three or four days we can call it contained, but that’s a long way from calling it controlled,” said U.S. Forest Service official Joe Paxton.
Roy Weaver, superintendent of nearby Bandelier National Monument, a national park with ancient Pueblo Indian cliff houses, said the fire had started on Thursday as a controlled burn to clear the area of material that could cause a wildfire.
“The fire was a little more energetic than we anticipated and the winds were unpredictable,” he told reporters.
Browne said the laboratory’s plutonium facility was located on the northeast side of the complex, far away from the western perimeter that was threatened by the fire, adding that there was very little material to fuel a fire in its vicinity.
There was also explosive materials on the laboratory’s grounds, but these were stored safely in underground bunkers made of concrete and steel, he said.
Authorities said they had evacuated 500 homes in western Los Alamos and that they might evacuate a similar number in the northern part of town, depending on the wind direction.
Those who had already been forced to leave their homes were offered temporary accommodation at a Red Cross shelter and a church in the neighbouring community of White Rock.
Gov. Gary Johnson declared a state of emergency, making the area eligible for extra resources to fight the fire. The laboratory, located among forests in the Jemez mountains of northern New Mexico, was set up in 1943 as part of the Manhattan project to create the first atomic bomb.
More recently it has been at the centre of U.S. government allegations of espionage against Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese-born nuclear scientist who worked at the facility.
