Los Alamos nuclear lab: New Mexico fire forces closure

Doug Tucker, Los Alamos fire chief: "We're doing our best to keep it off the lab"

One of the top nuclear weapons research facilities in the US will remain closed until Thursday as fire fighters battle a wildfire raging at its boundary.

Only "essential-duties" staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory will be permitted on site on Wednesday.
Officials at the New Mexico facility have said they detected "no off-site releases of contamination".
The town outside the laboratory in the state of New Mexico was evacuated on Monday as the fire raged nearby.
Officials said the nuclear facilities faced "no immediate threat" but warned of damage to houses.
The lab, opened during World War II, led the development of the atomic bomb.
By late Monday, the Las Conchas fire had grown to 68 sq miles (176 sq km), burning through forests, canyons, and mesas, fuelled by dry timber and powered by strong winds.
Authorities warned it could triple in size in the coming days, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
The fire had reached the lab's southwestern boundary and leapt a state road onto the land, burning roughly an acre, state fire officials said.
"No facilities face immediate threat, and all nuclear and hazardous materials are accounted for and protected," officials said in a statement.
The lab employs about 11,800 people, and about 12,000 people live in the town of Los Alamos.
"That's the biggest threat we have right now to homes in the community," Deputy Los Alamos County Fire Chief Mike Thompson told the Associated Press.
The southwestern US has been stricken by giant wildfires this year, with millions of acres scorched in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.
To the west of New Mexico, the largest wildfire in the history of the state of Arizona has been burning for nearly a month.