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Fire Closes in on Plutonium at Los Alamos National Laboratory
As I noted Tuesday, raging wildfires are threatening the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As Reuters reported the same day:
The fire ... surrounds the lab complex and adjacent town of Los Alamos on three sides.
Today, Associated Press provides details on the size of the fire:
A
wildfire that is threatening the nation’s premier nuclear weapons
laboratory ... is poised to become the largest fire in state history.
The fire near Los Alamos has charred nearly 145 square miles, or 92,735 acres.
***
They’re bracing for winds that could gust up to 40 mph Thursday afternoon.
ABC quotes the lab's former top security official to give some perspective on the danger:
“It
contains approximately 20,000 barrels of nuclear waste,” former top
[Los Alamos National Lab] 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.
Yahoo News notes that the fire is getting close to the drums of plutonium:
[ T]he plant is reportedly home to 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste. As of Thursday morning, the
flames were reportedly two miles away from this waste. “The concern is
that these drums will get so hot that they’ll burst,” says Joni
Arends, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear
Safety, as quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle. There is also concern
that the fire could stir up nuclear-contaminated soil left over from
years of testing, sending the nuclear waste into the plumes of smoke
hovering over the area.
ABC reports today:
Along with what’s actually on lab property, there is concern about
what’s in the canyons that surround the sprawling complex. Nuclear
tests were performed in the canyons dating back to the 1940s; so-called
“legacy contaminations.”
“The trees have grown up during that
timeframe, and the soil can also be contaminated. If they get heated
and that stuff goes air borne, then we are concerned,” Rita Bates of
the New Mexico Environment Department said.
As Los Alamos lab expert Peter Stockton told Time:
[We just have to] hope to hell that the wind blows in the right direction.
To add insult to injury, lightning is forecast for the Los Alamos area.
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Goddamnit, Cougar!
This is exactly why we have to take our shoes off at the airport. To make sure we don't have any of those fucking unsecured legacy radiation containment vessels (Hah, betcha they ain't thought of that one, yet!) secreted in your Depends.
Next stop.... blaming it on domestic homegrown tea party veteran legacy unhinged secret leaking traitorous commenting undesirable, truth telling, bible quoting, PM owning, deniers of every thing of every color of the gay rainbow, turrdorists.
Goddamnit, Cougar!
This is exactly why we have to take our shoes off at the airport. To make sure we don't have any of those fucking unsecured legacy radiation containment vessels (Hah, betcha they ain't thought of that one, yet!) secreted in your Depends.
Next stop.... blaming it on domestic homegrown tea party veteran legacy unhinged secret leaking traitorous commenting undesirable, truth telling, bible quoting, PM owning, deniers of every thing of every color of the gay rainbow, turrdorists.
I'm still struggling with that last comment: "We have to hope to hell the wind blows in the right direction . . "
This is what our strategy has been reduced to? Fucking HOPING things go our way? Seriously?
OMFG.
Well, if we all hope together, perhaps we can effect change.
As for the right direction, well that would be way away from me.
We're all hoping the wind blows toward Japan, where they are already fucked beyond earthly comprehension.
That's exactly the "strategy." The setting speaks for itself.
d'oh
Well well well...
I would want that sky above the waste filled with every availible heavy drop airframe even if we have to pay for those who have to fly in from other nations.
Yeah and a few hours work with a Cat D10 would give them a 500 foot buffer.
I don't get it.
You'd expect that they would be at least making heroic gestures, even if a hundred D11's and demolition crews couldn't really get the job done.
sounds like we need a little hope and change down there.....and exactly who's the top clown who went with a circus tent for nuclear waste protection?
Tents are all the rage this nuclear winter. They have talked tent for fukedupshima too.
Don't be shrill. Nobody ever saw this coming, dontcha know?
Wind Direction:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/US/WindSpeed.html
Yes hoping (prayer!) is a very important safety device for the Nuclear Industry because as Fukinshambles in Japan demonstrates, the 'experts' of the Industry have absolutely no safety equipment whatsoever
"We just have to hope to hell that the wind blows in the right direction."
...see if whistling Dixie helps too while you're in complete LaLa Land!
Tents.
That's what we're talking about, is tents. Same as you sleep in at summer camp.
20,000 (30,000 depending on what one reads) barrels of radioactive shit stored above grounds in tents.
Fucking fabric tents.
Yeah, and since it weren't made after the moment of the announcement, then the shit in barrels is along with the contaminated ground, "legacy radiation".
Yesserie, gonna get yer fuckin' legacy radiation when the fucking legacy barrels burst when the legacy fucking tents burn down and you're lega-fucking-cy downwind.
Is there absolutely nothing fucked up these days?
Don't answer.
It's rhetorical.
Dude, but these are govt. tents. Costing probably $100K each as they are certified to be radeeation-proof by the SEC.
.....Moody's.
And that's without the PVC structure. That's extra.
They're not tents. Pleaaaassee! They are in sort of fabric type buildings.
richest country in the world....
"richest country in the world...."
Money dosen't get old by spending it, silly man.
Fucking bulldozers should be in there now shovelling tons of soil over the barrels of waste. If the fires are a day or more away, it's doable, instead, we just pray. I really cant believe this.
We did it to ourselves by voting in Democrats who vetoed Yucca Mountain as a nuclear storage site. Thousands of feet beneath the surface, in and under solid granite, in a no-earthquake zone, far from the water table. It was perfect. But noooo. Thanks, Harry Reid.
web bot technology has been seeing a "nuclear fog" showing up in language analysis for the last number of weeks... As with everything, they are either very right or very wrong.
I'm hoping they are wrong on this one...
<not associated with web bot people>
Sitrep:
Situation Update No. 1
On 29.06.2011 at 12:10 GMT+2
Residents downwind of a wildfire that is threatening the nation's premier nuclear-weapons laboratory are worried about the potential of a radioactive smoke plume if the flames reach thousands of barrels of waste stored in above-ground tents. "If it gets to this contamination, it's over — not just for Los Alamos, but for Santa Fe and all of us in between," said Mai Ting, a resident who lives in the valley below the desert mesas that are home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Chris Valvarde, a resident of the Santa Clara Pueblo about 10 miles north of Los Alamos, questioned officials at a briefing Tuesday evening, asking whether they had evacuation plans for his community. Los Alamos, a town of 11,000, already sits empty after its residents were evacuated ahead of the blaze, which started Sunday. "I know it's the worse scenario to think of," Valverde said. "But when the radiation leaks, are we prepared to get 2,000 people out?"Lab Director Charles McMillan said the barrels contain transuranic waste — gloves, toolboxes, tools — and other items that may have been contaminated through contact with radioactive materials. Top lab officials declined to say how many barrels were on site or how they are stored. An anti-nuclear group has estimated there could be up to 30,000 gallon-drums. Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker, whose department is responsible for protecting the lab, said the barrels are stacked about three high inside of tents on lab property. The wildfire, which has swelled to nearly 95 square miles, has already sparked a spot fire at the lab. The fire Monday was quickly contained, and lab officials said no contamination was released. Top lab officials and fire managers said they're confident the flames won't reach key buildings or areas where radioactive waste is stored above-ground. Areas around those buildings have been cleared of vegetation and are surrounded by gravel or asphalt, they said. As a last resort, foam could be sprayed on the barrels to ensure they aren't damaged by fire, they added. The site's manager for the National Nuclear Security Administration said he evaluated the precautions and felt comfortable. The agency oversees the lab for the Department of Energy. "I have 170 people who validate their measures," Kevin Smith said. "They're in steel drums, on a concrete floor."
From RSOE EDISThe jellyfish are coming!! Still on the nuclear shutdown spree.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-13971005
Nuclear shutdown in Scotland, reactors shut down manually as threat of Jelly Fish attack!
Hey William, maybe you could do us a visual on this one.
Doesn't the web bot have a 100% failure rate? Except I think once it said the sun would rise the next day. That time it was right.
GW is like that guy "attention to all ships at sea". Like fireside theater. Like the Shadow..... Soothing
Could people at least point out a reference if they're going to junk? I mean really, point me in the right direction about this whole webbot thing.
I get all excited about some prediction thinking to myself "I may not need to go to work tomorrow because this webbot has a predition" and then I wake up in the morning to find I still need to go to work!