NM fire burns sacred native areas, nears town Nuclear lab defended by 10-mile-long area cleared out by deliberate fires

SNIP

'Hoping for the best': Firefighters battle blaze at edge of Los Alamos nuclear complex

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — A fierce wildfire at the edge of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a sprawling nuclear weapons complex, and near the town of Los Alamos burned through another 10,000 acres overnight.

Firefighters worked through the night to put out spot fires erupting ahead of the main blaze, which has torched 60,000 acres, or about 93 square miles, in less than two days.

Flames licked at the boundary of the laboratory site, home to the nation's largest supply of nuclear weapons.

The laboratory was shut down, and the town of Los Alamos, home to about 12,000 people, was placed under a mandatory evacuation Monday afternoon.

High winds on Monday forced the grounding of water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers, limiting fire defenses largely to the use of bulldozers and hand tools. The facility cut natural gas to some areas as a precaution.

By Monday afternoon, the blaze had jumped a highway and burned an acre of land on the outskirts of the 36-square-mile complex.

The fire scorched part of the site known as the Tech Area, 49, which was used in the early 1960s for a series of underground tests with high explosives and radioactive materials. Lab officials said the fire was safely extinguished.

Authorities said Monday night that radioactive and hazardous materials were safely beyond the fire's reach, and that efforts in recent years to clear the area of dry brush and other potential ground fuels had paid off in helping firefighters keep the blaze at bay.

However, the facility called in special teams to track readings from a network of 60 monitoring stations that measure levels of substances such as plutonium and uranium in the air "as a precaution," said lab director Charles McMillan.


END SNIP

FOR MORE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43558540/ns/weather/?GT1=43001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory (or LANL; previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security (LANS), located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The laboratory is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world, and conducts multidisciplinary research in fields such as national security, space exploration, renewable energy,[2] medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing.

LANL is the largest institution and the largest employer in northern New Mexico, with approximately direct 9,000 employees and around 650 contractor personnel.[3] Additionally, there are roughly 120 DOE employees stationed at the laboratory to provide federal oversight of LANL's work and operations. Approximately one-third of the laboratory's technical staff members are physicists, one quarter are engineers, one-sixth are chemists and materials scientists, and the remainder work in mathematics and computational science, biology, geoscience, and other disciplines. Professional scientists and students also come to Los Alamos as visitors to participate in scientific projects. The staff collaborates with universities and industry in both basic and applied research to develop resources for the future. The annual budget is approximately US$2.2 billion.

Los Alamos is one of two laboratories in the United States where classified work towards the design of nuclear weapons is undertaken. The other, since 1952, is Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The Manhattan Project

Main article: Manhattan Project

The laboratory was founded during World War II as a secret, centralized facility to coordinate the scientific research of the Manhattan Project, the Allied project to develop the first nuclear weapons. The laboratory was officially known as Site Y12. In September 1942, the difficulties encountered in conducting preliminary studies on nuclear weapons at universities scattered across the country indicated the need for a laboratory dedicated solely to that purpose.

General Groves wanted a central laboratory at an isolated location for safety, and to keep the scientists away from the populace. It should be at least 200 miles from international boundaries and west of the Mississippi. Major John Dudley suggested Oak City, Utah or Jemez Springs, New Mexico but both were rejected. Manhattan Project scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer had spent much time in his youth in the New Mexico area, and suggested the Los Alamos Ranch School on the mesa. Dudley had rejected the school as not meeting Groves’ criteria, but as soon as Groves saw it he said in effect This is the place.[4] Oppenheimer became the laboratory's first director.

During the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos hosted thousands of employees, including many Nobel Prize-winning scientists. The location was a total secret. Its only mailing address was a post-office box, number 1663, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[citation needed] Though its contract with the University of California was initially intended to be temporary,[citation needed] the relationship was maintained long after the war. Until the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, University of California president Robert Sproul did not know what the purpose of the laboratory was and thought it might be producing a "death ray".[citation needed] The only member of the UC administration who knew its true purpose—indeed, the only one who knew its exact physical location—was the Secretary-Treasurer Robert Underhill, who was in charge of wartime contracts and liabilities.[citation needed]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory

To be brief...Some of these fires are providing a cover.

gscraig wrote:To be brief...Some of these fires are providing a cover.

I wonder at times which is worse: the nefarious things I imagine them doing, or the nefarious things they are actually doing.

'Make or break day' expected in Los Alamos fire
Town remains evacuated, lab closed; air monitored for any nuclear releases

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — After a quiet morning, firefighters protecting this town and the nation's largest nuclear lab hoped the same would be true for the rest of Tuesday.

Calling it a "make or break day," officials said no additional structures had been lost but noted that the massive fire could make a run through two canyons.

The town of Los Alamos, home to about 12,000 people, was evacuated Monday afternoon as a precaution.

The wildfire — which has burned 60,000 acres, or 93 square miles, in just two days — was as close as 50 feet from the Los Alamos National Laboratory grounds on Tuesday afternoon.

On Monday, a spot fire at the lab was quickly contained, and lab officials said no contamination was released.

Lab officials and fire managers said they're confident the flames won't reach key buildings or areas where radioactive waste is stored in barrels above ground.

Video: Concern over nuclear lab stockpiles (on this page)- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43558540/ns/weather/?GT1=43001

For the stored waste, officials say a last resort would include spraying foam on the barrels to ensure they aren't damaged by fire.

Teams from the National Nuclear Security Administration's Radiological Assistance Program were headed to the scene to help assess any nuclear or radiological hazards, said Kevin Smith, Los Alamos Site Office manager.

"The ... teams' work will provide another level of assurance that the community is safe from potential radiological releases as the fire progresses," Smith said in a statement.

The lab will be closed through at least Wednesday, with only essential employees permitted back onto laboratory property.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43558540/ns/weather/?GT1=43001

Officials throw 'everything' at Los Alamos wildfire
Lab says drums of nuclear material can withstand fire; anti-nuke group fears they would burst


LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Authorities were working flat out to halt a wildfires' advance on Los Alamos laboratory and thousands of outdoor drums of plutonium-contaminated waste, a New Mexico senator said on Wednesday.

"We are throwing absolutely everything at this that we got," Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said in Los Alamos.

The fire's leading edge burned to within a few miles of a dump site where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste, including clothing and equipment, is stored at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, fire officials said.
Video: Fire continues to threaten nuclear lab (on this page)
Established during World War II 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 United States.

Authorities have suspended routine removal of the waste drums for shipment to a permanent underground disposal site in southern New Mexico, said Los Alamos County Fire Chief Douglas Tucker.

"Because of the fire, they are not moving any of that. It is safer where it is," he said.

Monitoring radiation
Officials also gave assurances that dangerous materials were safely stored and capable of withstanding flames from the 95-square-mile fire, which at one point was as close as 50 feet from the grounds.

They also stepped up efforts to protect the site and monitor the air for radiation.

A small patch of land at the laboratory caught fire Monday before firefighters quickly put it out. Teams were on alert to pounce on any new blazes and spent the day removing brush and low-hanging tree limbs from the lab's perimeter.

The fire that forced the evacuation of the entire city of Los Alamos, population 11,000, cast giant plumes of smoke over the region and raised fears among nuclear watchdogs that it will reach the barrels of contaminated waste.


Remainder of story / video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43573997/ns/weather/

It is important to note the sudden coincidences involving nuclear power plants and crisis.

As I observe, mu initial opinion is that they are trying to nullify the nuclear sites, to prevent greater damage environmentally and atmospherically by geologic means.

It may be interesting to track which ones are targeted.

Los Alamos Fire And 30,000 Barrels of Plutonium: Perfect Cover For A Nuclear False-Flag Operation?
The Intel Hub
June 27, 2011

Update By Alex Thomas – 30,000 Barrels of Plutonium Stored At Los Alamos nuclear laboratory?
Concerned Citizens For Nuclear Safety, an anti nuclear watchdog group, has reported that over 30,000 barrels of plutonium contaminated waste is being stored in tents ABOVE ground near the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
These barrels may be in danger due to a massive fire that has been quoted as, “entirely uncontained and highly unpredictable.”
“The weather forecast for Los Alamos predicts the wind through Tuesday afternoon will be from the southeast, then switching from the southwest at 11-18 mph with minimum humidities in the lower teens. This could encourage the fire to move closer to Los Alamos,” reported Wildfiretoday.com.
This is absolutely critical information that was given a paragraph in the corporate controlled media.
Government officials have been quick to claim that the situation does not pose a risk to public health and while we all hope they are right, it is the job of the press to MAKE SURE.
NBC Nightly news was one of the few newscasts to cover the fact that THREE nuclear power plants are currently in danger in the United States!

read on : http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/27/los-alamos-fire-and-30000-barrels-of-plutonium-perfect-cover-for-nuclear-false-flag-operation/

Love Always
mudra

Spin, spin, spin...

Los Alamos Fire: Why Nuclear Waste is Probably Safe

A key barrier between the New Mexico wildfire that started several days ago and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a road which has been cleared of trees and debris, has held. That has so far prevented the spread of the fire towards the lab, which sits on the eastern side of the blaze. That was the word today from Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker during a briefing of reporters. Only 3% of the fire has been officially contained, Tucker said, but winds are blowing the fire west, away from the lab.

While the edge of the fire is only a few dozen meters from the edge of the lab's property, it is roughly 13 km from the most sensitive location, the so-called "Area G." That site is a 63-acre storage facility where thousands of drums of nuclear waste sit, many of which are outdoors.

But between the fire and that site is the remnants of a forest that was largely burned during a horrific 2000 fire on lab property. That fire burned "90%" of the flammable material from the west side of the lab, says Los Alamos retiree Charles Mansfield, who worked as a physicist at the lab for 17 years and also as a forest firefighter, a so-called smokejumper, for 11 years. Mansfield says he's "not very concerned" about the fire reaching spreading east to Area G.

"It would be very difficult for the fire to get that far," he says. Sometimes embers in a hotly burning fire can be lofted as much as 4 miles to start so-called "spot fires." But this requires a forest burning completely, from the ground to the high branches, he says. The area of forest close enough to have a chance to create the heat and updrafts required to bring the blaze to Area G has already burned, Mansfield contends. That would mean that the grass and brush required to get the trees on fire is gone.

A 1-acre fire that started when embers landed in a remote area of the lab that is used for explosives testing is the only instance of the 70,000 acre blaze reaching the sprawling laboratory grounds. The lab, which has been closed since Monday, will remain closed tomorrow and possibly Friday.

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/06/los-alamos-fire-why-nuclear-wast.html?ref=ra

From mudra's link, above (comment section at the bottom):

MaxBlack says:
June 28, 2011 at 7:41 AM
The way I see this is quite different and because we are dealing with liars and deceivers, consider the following theory. It is only food for thought, so keep that in mind as you consider the following theory or suspicions of those that call themselves the elite and the NWO Globalist.

A conveniently timed nuclear disaster caused by natures wild fires in Los Alamos could send that radioactive plutonium eastward and if it does based on some Los Alamos disaster, then such a disaster will help to hide the elevated highly nuclear radiation levels along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

By distracting the nation to Los Alamos and the radioactive dangers everything downwind of Los Alamos will theoretically be somehow contaminated by any radioactive plutonium that gets spread across the nation. In such a way anyone noting elevated radioactivity level along the two rivers leading to the Gulf of Mexico, will be blamed on Los Alamos.

In such a way the NRC can hide behind any Los Alamos disaster and blame all the increased radioactive levels on Japan’s Fukushima and perhaps Los Alamos.

If they use such a site for such a false flag purpose, they could also use the incident to finally get rid of years of stored radioactive waste that would have cost billions to dispose of properly and with a supposed natural occurring disaster, everyone including the NRC is off the hook, provided they can sell the lie to the nation and keep everyone looking at Los Alamos wildfires when we should already be monitoring radioactivity levels along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers as a clue that the New Madrid Fault Zone from Nebraska to the Gulf of Mexico is already receiving increased levels of radioactive waste materials and other industrial and corporate waste matter that such a flooding will allow for such covert and quiet disposal and with no one having to pay millions or billions to do so.

Figure out the money to be saved by the industries involved and anyone can quickly see that years of neglected radioactive waste is finally being disposed of in a disastrous manner while blaming nature for the cause of the disaster.

Los Alamos is part of the NWO end game in play, but it is also a major distraction from the nuclear reactor problems along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Los Alamos is a distraction play and even if it does have real plutonium dangers involved, such dangers will be used to hide the other ones. Got the picture? Well, I hope so, because for this trick to work, we have to be distracted or put to sleep to allow them from putting their game plan into play.

Keep an eye on the floods and the dangers along the water ways to the Gulf of Mexico. Something tells me it will become the future silent problem while all the media and the world focuses on Los Alamos and the horror and fear that such a disaster would create. It would be classic distraction and unaccountability mixed into a false flag operation for the world to suffer.

http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/27/los-alamos-fire-and-30000-barrels-of-plutonium-perfect-cover-for-nuclear-false-flag-operation/

Crews watch for 'spot' fires inside Los Alamos nuclear lab
Wildfire grows to 70,000 acres; some residents worry about radiation

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Firefighters for the first time gained control of a small edge of the fire near the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Wednesday, but were on alert for any spot fires that might fall within the nuclear weapons lab or nearby town.

The so-called Las Conchas Fire, which continues to throw small fires onto Los Alamos National Laboratory, has grown to nearly 70,000 acres, fire information officer Linda Kearns said.

But about three percent of the fire's perimeter was finally contained, the first time firefighters were able to make headway on the blaze that had burned out of control since Sunday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43573997/ns/weather/

________________________________

Los Alamos shuts down supercomputers as fire advances
It's a record year for wildfires and something IT equipment doesn't like: smoke

By Patrick Thibodeau
June 29, 2011 06:53 PM ET

Computerworld - The Los Alamos National Lab has shut down two of its largest supercomputers, as wildfires continue to burn near this sprawling New Mexico facility.

There were no wildfires on laboratory property Wednesday, but smoke is prevalent throughout the area.

The National Weather Service has called air quality "potentially unhealthy," and Los Alamos residents are being urged to minimize exposure to it. The lab will be closed through Thursday.

A Los Alamos spokeswoman said the laboratory conducted an "orderly shutdown" of two of its largest supercomputers, IBM's Roadrunner, the first the break the petaflop barrier in 2008, and now the 10th ranked most powerful supercomputer in the world, and Cielo, a Craig system that is ranked No. 6 on the Top500 list.

The supercomputer shutdowns were conducted "early on," but an exact day or reason for the action wasn't clear. The laboratory was first closed on Monday in response to wildfires that have now burned more than 100 square miles.

But smoke is a potential threat to data centers and IT equipment. It can trigger a shutdown of air handling systems and IT equipment. Particulates from smoke can damage components. And this has been a record year for smoke-producing wildfires.

According to the National Climate Data Center, there were 6,625 fires which burned approximately 1.1 million acres in May -- the most acres burned during the month of May on record. The amount of acreage burned so far this year is 3.45 million acres, "the largest in the 12-year period of record," the climate center said.

The problem with smoke is that it "is so fine that it can get into things like your hard drive, it can get between your processors and your motherboards, it can get in between your ram and motherboards," said Jason Burnett, the director of infrastructure at NeoSpire, a managed hosting provider in Dallas.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218042/Los_Alamos_shuts_down_supercomputers_as_fire_advances_
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LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — This city and neighboring nuclear lab appeared to be out of fire danger, at least for now, but officials said Thursday that sacred Native American sites had burned and that the fire was now threatening the town of Santa Clara Pueblo.


"Today is a good day for parts of this fire. It's a bad day for other parts of this fire. Our hearts go out to the folks that are suffering the bad part," Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker said at a press conference.

Resources were shifted to keep the fire from moving down a canyon toward Santa Clara Pueblo, about seven miles away. Established around 1550, the town has a mostly indigenous population of around 1,000.


Above the canyon on Chicoma Mountain, sacred areas were burning, fire operations chief Jerome MacDonald said. New Mexico's Pueblo people consider Chicoma, the highest point of the Jemez mountain range, as the "center of all." The Puye Cliff Dwellings are in the Santa Clara Canyon.

Santa Clara Pueblo officials issued a statement saying the fire had burned through 6,000 acres of its watershed.

"Our canyon is the source of our Santa Clara Creek that we rely upon for irrigation but, more than that, it was a beautiful place of abundance in wildlife, clean water, culturally significant trees and medicinal plants," said Santa Clara Pueblo Gov. Walter Dasheno.

The fire has chewed up tens of thousands of acres a day since it started Sunday, charring nearly 145 square miles, or 92,735 acres, by Thursday morning.

Fire officials believe the blaze will soon surpass the largest fire in New Mexico history, one that burned more than 94,000 acres of the Gila National Forest in 2003.

MORE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43589715/ns/weather/

Excerpt:

Firefighters, confident they can keep both the lab and town safe from the fire, made progress on some fronts along its southern border Thursday even as the fire pushed northward toward land considered sacred by a Native American tribe.

"This is a fire like we've never seen before," Santa Clara Pueblo Gov. Walter Dasheno told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He said his people are devastated by the news coming in from the front lines of the firefighting efforts — cultural sites destroyed, forest resources lost and plants and animals that the pueblo's 2,800 residents depend on gone.

"We cried when we saw Mother Nature doing what she was doing to our canyon area. We were helpless," he said.

The fire has chewed up tens of thousands of acres a day since it started Sunday, becoming among the largest forest fires in New Mexico history. Crews have contained only 3 percent of the fire.

http://www.chem.info/News/2011/07/Safety-Crews-Battle-NM-Fire-Which-Pushes-into-Canyon/

Thanks for keeping us updated on this dreadful fire Troy.

I've often wonder just how far along we would have been if the focus had been on wind power and solar instead of nuclear.

(Reuters) - The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory has ended a state of emergency and was taking small steps on Saturday toward reopening as the threat from a record New Mexico wildfire subsided.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/us-wildfires-newmexico-idUSTRE7611SL20110702

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - The threat of wildfire reaching the Los Alamos nuclear lab and the town that surrounds it eased after crews made progress under cloud cover and rain, but concerns turned yesterday to lands held sacred by Native American tribes as firefighters braced for a hot, dry weekend.

The fire has blackened more than 162 square miles in the past six days, making it the largest fire in New Mexico history. Erratic winds and dry fuels helped it surpass the 2003 Dry Lakes fire, which took five months to burn through vast parts of the Gila National Forest.

More than 1,200 firefighters were on the lines yesterday trying to slow down the flames. National Guard troops, State Police officers, and local deputies patrolled neighborhoods and enforced evacuation orders.

“It’s not over yet,’’ US Senator Jeff Bingaman said during a briefing in the heart of Los Alamos.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory remained closed, and fire officials said there was no chance the thousands of evacuated residents and lab employees would be able to resume their normal lives soon.

Still, the fire chiefs in charge of battling the massive blaze were confident because their crews were keeping flames from spreading down a canyon that leads to the lab and the town.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/07/02/wildfire_threat_to_los_alamos_nuclear_lab_lets_up_but_dry_weekend_looms/

Tribes fear loss of sacred sites near NM fire


Excerpt

Residents have worried that the blaze would reach Cold War-era waste stored on lab property, releasing contaminants into the air. But tribes have turned their concerns to the cabins, pueblos and watersheds that are in the path of the largest wildfire ever in state history.

"We were also praying on our knees, we were asking the Creator in our cultural way to please forgive us, 'What have we done?'" Santa Clara Pueblo Gov. Walter Dasheno said. "Bring moisture so that the Mother Fire can be stopped. But that was not meant to be."

About 2,800 tribe members live in the dusty village nestled in New Mexico's high desert, where they depend on ponds that provide water for irrigation.

The blaze reached the Santa Clara Pueblo's watershed earlier this week, damaging the cultural site and scorching 20 square miles of tribal forest. Fire operations chief Jerome MacDonald said it was within miles of the centuries-old Puye Cliff Dwellings, a national historic landmark.

Pueblo Fire Chief Mel Tafoya said it was unclear whether cabins in the canyon leading to the forested area or the irrigation ponds survived the blaze. Members of the state's congressional delegation have promised federal help for the tribe pending a damage assessment.

Dasheno said that despite the pain of losing an estimated 75 percent of the tribe's forest to three recent fires, "we are going to come back."

"We're going to tell the story of what occurred to our children and grandchildren. And yes, we're going to cry," he said.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Los-Alamos-officials-plan-for-return-of-residents-1445090.php#ixzz1QzUlNbKM