Flames leap within site of Los Alamos Nuclear weapons laboratory

June 29, 2011 – NEW MEXICO – 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. “Our facilities and nuclear material are protected and safe,” Laboratory Director Dr. Charles McMillan told ABC News. The Los Alamos facility — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — was shrouded in secrecy long before it was surrounded by smoke after the Las Conchas fire began Sunday. “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. The flames from the 95-square-mile fire have reportedly reached as close as 50 feet from the grounds. With a wildfire so close, lab officials, along with government officials such as New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, are trying to reassure the public of the plant’s safety. “I’m confident in saying that they are committed to making it safe,” Martinez told ABC News. After a mass evacuation, the city of Los Alamos remains a ghost town. Most of its 12,000 residents were evacuated Monday, some leaving their sprinklers on to protect their homes. Still, according to Police Chief Wayne Torpy, about 150 die-hard residents have stayed behind, unfazed by the danger presented by their nuclear neighbor. “I know the laboratory is secure and they’re ready for this kind of emergency situation,” Stephanie Chavez, a resident of Los Alamos, told ABC News. Firefighters have made progress in the past few days, and have said that the risk of the flames reaching radioactive material is slim. Still, they caution that winds Wednesday could change, as could their level of confidence. –ABC News

Clear and present danger: The U.S. appears to have been prepared for every type of threat from terrorists to its nuclear facilities except the assaults which can be inflicted by Mother Nature. Nature is sending a message loud and clear- and we wonder if anybody in the world is listening? The series of mishaps this month is enough to make one wonder who’s really in charge- man or nature. This month, lightning strikes shut down both the High Flux Reactor in Tennessee and the Dominion North Ana plant in Virginia. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant in Omaha is under threat from flooding this week in the Midwest and now the Los Alamos nuclear facility in New Mexico is under siege from wildfires. As the March 9.0 earthquake in Japan showed us, the world is ill-equipped to contain and protect the public at large from the dangers of a disaster at these nuclear facilities in the face of escalating threats from Earthchanges.  -The Extinction Protocol

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