Previous burn, restoration work helped spare Los Alamos from catastrophe
Smokey sunset over the Jemez Mountains on June 30. LANL photo.Extensive thinning around the city of Los Alamos and the nuclear weapons lab, which sprawls across the southwestern edge of town, by the Forest Service, Los Alamos County and the lab after the Cerro Grande conflagration, also helped create a buffer around the community and the lab, officials said.
The fire came within 50 feet of Los Alamos National Laboratory, sparking fears that it could incinerate an old hazardous waste site on the property, but the lab's fuel reduction efforts paid off, officials said. (Full story)
LANL workers return to Lab
Tom Kendrick, left, and David Cremer look over the Valles Caldera. ABQ Journal photo.Los Alamos National Laboratory got back to work Wednesday, more than one week after the Las Conchas Fire forced roughly 10,000 lab employees out of their offices and out of town.
Walk-throughs were being conducted to assess safety and check that electronics and computers were all in the same condition as when staff cleared out because of the fire June 27. (Subscription or viewing an ad required to see full story)
Nuclear weapons lab reopens as fire danger fades
Smoke fills the sky behind the National Security Sciences Building early during the fire. LANL photo.Smoke still hung in the air from a northern New Mexico wildfire that came dangerously close to the nation's premier nuclear weapons laboratory, but life was returning to normal Wednesday as thousands of employees showed up for their first day of work in more than a week. (Full story)
LANL footage surveys damage to evacuee homes
High-resolution image of Area G looking to the south. LANL photo.As the Las Conchas Fire made its most threatening swipe at Los Alamos National Laboratory, administrators there deployed homegrown aerial surveillance technology known as Angel Fire to take both a wider and closer view of the situation.
The project was intended to give thousands of evacuated residents reliable visual information on their homes and residences and to share with the public a detailed picture of the contours of the fire. (Full story)
Tests show normal radiation exposure rates near Las Conchas
Technicians check one of LANL's air monitoring stations during the fire. LANL photo.Though Las Conchas fire continues to burn, Los Alamos National Laboratory reopened to employees Wednesday, and residents began returning to their homes Sunday.
Concerns have been raised about potential contaminants in the smoke from Las Conchas, but preliminary tests have found "typical" radiation exposure rates. The state Environmental Department released preliminary results of air quality monitoring July 2. (Full story)
LANL, Sandia researchers win six ‘Nobels of technology’
Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories researchers landed six R&D 100 Awards — known as the Nobels of technology — in this year’s annual contest, and Sandia was a co-winner of a fourth.R&D Magazine presents the prestigious awards each year to researchers whom its editors and independent judging panels determine have developed the year’s 100 most outstanding advances in applied technologies, Sandia said in a news release. (Subscription or viewing an ad required to see full story)
United Way Los Alamos-based, Rio Arriba County supportive
United Way of Northern New Mexico funnels almost $500,000 to Rio Arriba County non-profits annually. We have the Los Alamos National Laboratory to thank for matching dollar-for-dollar much of the donations through the Lab. (Full story)To subscribe to Los Alamos Report, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe losalamosreport in the body of your email message; to unscubscribe, include unsubscribe losalamosreport.
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