LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico – Fire service chiefs have been scrambling to reinforce crews fighting against an out-of-control blaze at the edge of one of the top US nuclear weapons production centres.
The fire’s leading edge burned to within a few miles of a dump site where some 20,000 barrels of plutonium-contaminated waste, including clothing and equipment, are stored at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to fire officials.
Officials at the government-run lab said the stored waste was considered low-level radioactive material and remained a safe distance from the fire in an area cleared of trees and other vegetation.
Carl Beard, director of operations for the lab, said there had been no release of radioactive or hazardous materials into the environment and there was no immediate threat to public safety, “even in these extreme conditions”.
Established during the second World War as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb, the lab remains one of the leading nuclear arms manufacturing facilities in the US.
Authorities have suspended routine removal of the waste drums for shipment to a permanent underground disposal site in southern New Mexico, according to Los Alamos county fire chief Douglas Tucker.
The fire, believed to have been ignited on Sunday by a fallen power line, has consumed almost 61,000 acres of thick pine woodlands in Santa Fe National Forest, which surrounds the lab complex and adjacent town of Los Alamos on three sides.
Mr Tucker said he feared the so- called Las Conchas fire, whipped by high, rapidly shifting winds, could soon double or triple in size.
The blaze remained listed as at 0 per cent containment and burning largely unchecked in its third day.
“I seriously believe it could go to 100,000 acres,” Mr Tucker said. “We have fire all around the lab. It’s a road away.” – (Reuters)