Fast moving wildfires threaten to ignite plutonium barrels at Los Alamos Nuclear Facility.
The United States is a big proponent for Nuclear power. It currently has over 100 Nuclear power plants in operation in the U.S. Even after the Japanese nuclear crisis of Fukushima, President Obama stood firm in his assertion that the U.S. will continue on building more nuclear plants in the future after stating that they were perfectly safe. The problem with that is that you can't always count on what Mother nature or mankind is about to deal out.
Japan is still struggling with Fukushima 3 months after the initial crisis. And now the U.S has it's own concerns to worry about. In June, the Wallow wildfires in Arizona were started by careless humans and an unattended campfire. The wildfires burned for weeks threatening wildlife and thousands of acres of wilderness. Now the wildfires have crossed over into New Mexico. As of Sunday, the massive wildfire had already burned up nearly 145 square miles of land across New Mexico, or 92,735 acres.
Which is bad in itself. What makes it even worse is the fact that now there is a threat of a nuclear disaster taking place in New Mexico. Heavy winds and plenty of dry brush have now fueled flames to within 50 feet of New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, home of the first atomic bomb. There are currently 30,000 55-gallon drums of radioactive plutonium waste on that site which are not particularly well-protected.
The fear is that these drums will get so hot that they will burst, thereby causing the radioactive material to form a giant plume into the air. In addition to the possibility of the drums bursting there is the situation that because of countless nuclear experiments that were conduct there, the nuclear contaminated soil could interact with the wildfires and also release old and deadly radioactive waste into the air in the form of a plume. The EPA is now monitoring the air for radiation.
Throughout it all the Los Alamos National Laboratory is claiming that everything is under control. They are insisting that there is little danger of the fire reaching the drums because there are several canyons that seperate them from the location of the fires. But the entire town of Los Alamos has been evacuated which has a population of 11,000 people. The EPA is also now on radiation alert.
Sadly this is all sounding way too familiar. Japan denied for days that their situation was serious. And we all know the true story to that now. Isn't it high time that America also follows the lead of some of Europe's countries who have vowed to cut out nuclear energy going forward? Before it is too late!
The United States is a big proponent for Nuclear power. It currently has over 100 Nuclear power plants in operation in the U.S. Even after the Japanese nuclear crisis of Fukushima, President Obama stood firm in his assertion that the U.S. will continue on building more nuclear plants in the future after stating that they were perfectly safe. The problem with that is that you can't always count on what Mother nature or mankind is about to deal out.
Japan is still struggling with Fukushima 3 months after the initial crisis. And now the U.S has it's own concerns to worry about. In June, the Wallow wildfires in Arizona were started by careless humans and an unattended campfire. The wildfires burned for weeks threatening wildlife and thousands of acres of wilderness. Now the wildfires have crossed over into New Mexico. As of Sunday, the massive wildfire had already burned up nearly 145 square miles of land across New Mexico, or 92,735 acres.
Which is bad in itself. What makes it even worse is the fact that now there is a threat of a nuclear disaster taking place in New Mexico. Heavy winds and plenty of dry brush have now fueled flames to within 50 feet of New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, home of the first atomic bomb. There are currently 30,000 55-gallon drums of radioactive plutonium waste on that site which are not particularly well-protected.
The fear is that these drums will get so hot that they will burst, thereby causing the radioactive material to form a giant plume into the air. In addition to the possibility of the drums bursting there is the situation that because of countless nuclear experiments that were conduct there, the nuclear contaminated soil could interact with the wildfires and also release old and deadly radioactive waste into the air in the form of a plume. The EPA is now monitoring the air for radiation.
Throughout it all the Los Alamos National Laboratory is claiming that everything is under control. They are insisting that there is little danger of the fire reaching the drums because there are several canyons that seperate them from the location of the fires. But the entire town of Los Alamos has been evacuated which has a population of 11,000 people. The EPA is also now on radiation alert.
Sadly this is all sounding way too familiar. Japan denied for days that their situation was serious. And we all know the true story to that now. Isn't it high time that America also follows the lead of some of Europe's countries who have vowed to cut out nuclear energy going forward? Before it is too late!
Photo from NASA
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