Fast-moving wildfire nears Los Alamos nuclear labescape_attemptJune 28 2011, 03:00:19 UTC
2011-06-27) (Reuters)
"This fire is going to be with us for a while. It has the potential to double and triple in size," Los Alamos Fire Chief Doug Tucker said Monday afternoon. The Las Conchas fire grew from a couple thousand acres on Sunday to 44,000 acres overnight, destroying 30 structures in the Cochiti Mesa and Tent Rock areas. Evacuations for Los Alamos and White Rock, population 18,000 are still voluntary, but residents have been told that could change. Due to high winds, all aircraft have been grounded, Tucker said. The laboratory, which ensures the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, is located in the Jemez mountains of northern New Mexico. It was set up in 1943 as part of the Manhattan project to create the first atomic bomb and still maintains the nation's largest nuclear weapons arsenal."http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxel/news.newsmain/article
The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, however, said the fire appeared to be about 3 1/2 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. The group said the drums were awaiting transport to a low-level radiation dump site in southern New Mexico
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(Reuters)
"This fire is going to be with us for a while. It has the potential to double and triple in size," Los Alamos Fire Chief Doug Tucker said Monday afternoon.
The Las Conchas fire grew from a couple thousand acres on Sunday to 44,000 acres overnight, destroying 30 structures in the Cochiti Mesa and Tent Rock areas.
Evacuations for Los Alamos and White Rock, population 18,000 are still voluntary, but residents have been told that could change.
Due to high winds, all aircraft have been grounded, Tucker said.
The laboratory, which ensures the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, is located in the Jemez mountains of northern New Mexico. It was set up in 1943 as part of the Manhattan project to create the first atomic bomb and still maintains the nation's largest nuclear weapons arsenal."http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxel/news.newsmain/article
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