[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teQYuxU2jZs&feature=player_detailpage]Los Alamos, New Mexico is now in mandatory evacuation including Los Alamos National Labs and Nuclear Research Facility, home to nuclear energy.  The winds have moved the Las Conchas Fire to the nuclear facility. This is where the first atomic bomb was built, and numerous nuclear tests carried out over 50 years ago. Tech Area 49, which was used in the early 1960s for a series of underground tests with high explosives and radioactive materials is said to have a spot fire. The fire has burned an estimated 60,000 acres.

The potential greater public concern is the dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste are stored in fabric tents above ground this adds to the element of usual catastrophic effects of fire.

“These drums are designed to a safety standard that would withstand a wildland fire worse than this one,” Lab spokeswoman Lisa Rosendorf said, the drums contain cleanup from Cold War-era waste that the lab sends away in weekly shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.  Charlie McMillan, Los Alamos Labs Director as of a month ago, starts off with significant challenges.

Teams from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Radiological Assistance Program are on the way to the scene to help assess any nuclear or radiological hazards, said Kevin Smith, Los Alamos Site Office manager.  The teams will monitor the air and contaminants. The National Guard and State Police have been called in to patrol, with the main road into Los Alamos closed.

Watch the news reports coming out today, and it is hard to hold the light for humanity.  The key is appreciation of what we have now, and to gain perspective to change our patterns regarding the source of energy.