Democracy Now: EPA Begins Monitoring Air As Wildfire Approaches Los Alamos Nuclear Lab

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun monitoring the air in New Mexico for radiation as a massive wildfire approaches Los Alamos, the nation’s premier nuclear-weapons laboratory. The fire has forced the lab to be closed since Monday. Concern is growing that the fire could reach a section of the lab where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste are stored in fabric tents above ground. Mai Ting a nearby resident said, “If it gets to this contamination, it’s over — not just for Los Alamos, but for Santa Fe and all of us in between.”

~ by wheresthemic on June 29, 2011.