A recent paper has raised the alarm about radioactive contamination in this notorious location.
New scientific research has discovered that soil, plants, and water at popular recreational sites near Los Alamos, New Mexico, are contaminated with “extreme concentrations” of plutonium. To make matters worse, the federal government has apparently ignored calls to take action.
For those unfamiliar with the history, Los Alamos was the site of the Manhattan Project during World War II. This project was America’s secret effort to develop the first nuclear weapons, and this place was the enclave where the Los Alamos National Lab, the epicenter of the plan, was built.
Excessive plutonium. The high levels of plutonium found in samples taken from the Acid Canyon area of Los Alamos in July may be the oldest contamination in the state, predating the 1945 Trinity Site atomic test. Michael Ketterer, a chemist and professor at Northern Arizona University and principal investigator on the recent study, told The Guardian, “This is one of the most shocking things I’ve ever stumbled across in my life,” adding that the radioactive isotopes are “hiding in plain sight.”
It seems that the legacy plutonium contamination, estimated to have lasted until the 1960s, is still affecting the land, water, and potentially human health. In a virtual briefing, Ketterer mentioned, “What I found here at Acid Canyon [is] pretty much the most extreme contamination scenario I’ve seen in an off-site, uncontrolled environmental setting,” referring to the thousands of plutonium samples he’s analyzed in his 20-year career.
Government inaction. In his paper, Ketterer brought attention to government institutions about contamination levels surpassing the samples taken on private property near the former plutonium production site at Rocky Flats, Colorado. The scientist’s concern warrants immediate intervention by federal or state environmental protection agencies.
Even though Ketterer isn’t a toxicology expert, he’s worried about the potential for people to ingest or inhale the contamination, particularly as it’s in a public open space owned by the county. He said he’s not concerned that people are drinking it, but their pets might. Ketterer also emphasized the importance of “making sure that people don’t drink it, don’t ingest it, and they don’t inhale it...” Additionally, he pointed out the possibility of plutonium entering water supplies that feed into the Rio Grande.
More plutonium is being produced. Moreover, Ketterer released his study shortly after the Department of Defense announced that it’ll increase production of plutonium pits, a core component of nuclear weapons, at Los Alamos.
Meanwhile, the Senate recently passed a defense bill with expanded funding for those exposed to government radioactive waste. As a result, local public health advocates have expressed outrage over the exclusion of the Los Alamos region from the benefits.
The “Acid Canyon.” The area has a history of being a dumping ground for radioactive waste from the Los Alamos National Lab, when the Department of Defense was developing the country’s nuclear weapons there. It continued to be used in this way until 1963. This waste contamination led to the nickname “Acid Canyon.”
Years later, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy invested $2 billion on mitigation efforts to clean up the area. In the 1980s, the area was finally brought up to federal cleanup standards to ensure its safety for public use, according to the government. The commission eventually transferred the land to Los Alamos County with no restrictions on use, making it a popular dirt trail for bicyclists, hikers, and joggers.
What does the government say? Public health advocates are urging the government to put up warning signs for visitors, so they can decide whether to use a trail contaminated with toxic waste. However, the Department of Energy has only stated that the levels are “very low and well within the safe exposure range.”
The recent paper could change everything. Ketterer explained that the levels found weren’t normal. In fact, they were among the highest he had seen in a publicly accessible area in the U.S. during his decades-long career, comparable to those found in Ukraine at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Image | Public Domain
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