Potential is high for a major calamity
Posted by
JAC on 6/29/2011, 10:58 am
http://abcnews.go.com/US/los-alamos-fire-epa-testing-radiation/story?id=13953953
The wildfire that surrounds the nuclear lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico, has grown to at least 61,000 acres amid mounting concerns about what might be in the smoke that's visible from space.
Such fear has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to bring in air monitors, along with a special airplane that checks for radiation levels. So far officials have not been able to find anything.
"It contains approximately 20,000 barrels of nuclear waste," former top security official Glen Walp said. "It's not contained within a concrete, brick and mortar-type building, but rather in a sort of fabric-type building that a fire could easily consume.
"Potential is high for a major calamity if the fire would reach these areas," he added.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-los-alamos-fire-20110629,0,5386698.story
[...] Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker said his department had the capacity to blanket the barrels with fire-retarding foam if a fire somehow sprang up at the storage site, which is paved and free of combustible materials. [...]
"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," Joni Arends, executive director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, told the Associated Press. [...]
|
56
In this thread:
Fire at Los Alamos National Lab -
JAC,
6/28/2011, 6:39 am- Evacuation order for city - JAC, 7/1/2011, 7:45 am
- 12K people rushed out of town fearing mutant offspring - JAC, 6/30/2011, 10:59 am
- Crews Make Progress On Fire Near Los Alamos - JAC, 6/30/2011, 6:26 am
- The Taxpayer Shouldn't be Burned Again in LANL's Inadequate Fire Protection Program - ArgosyTn, 6/29/2011, 1:17 pm
- Fire Chief thinking 100K acres - JAC, 6/29/2011, 12:28 pm
- Potential is high for a major calamity - JAC, 6/29/2011, 10:58 am
- CIMSS: Record Heat and Los Alamos Fire - JAC, 6/29/2011, 8:21 am
- Fire has potential to double or triple in size - JAC, 6/29/2011, 5:52 am
- NASA overflight shows wildfire spreading to north and east in the direction of Los Alamos - JAC, 6/28/2011, 12:15 pm
- Hoping for the best - JAC, 6/28/2011, 11:22 am
- Due to high winds, all aircraft have been grounded - JAC, 6/28/2011, 6:44 am
Post A Reply
This thread has been archived and can no longer receive replies.