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Readers, The following appeared in the Washington Post on Friday, Nov 29. I think this subject about contaminated trees came up in the past. Can anyone refresh my memory on what the radionuclide concerns are? Thanks. -- John Trees Near N.M. Lab May Be Radioactive
Friday, November 29, 2002; Page A41 LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Workers trying to thin forests near Los Alamos National Laboratory have been told not to remove trees cut down in certain areas because they might be radioactive, lab officials said this week. "The lab has identified a few patches in a zone not heavily forested that was surveyed before and after experiments in the 1940s and 1950s," said Jim Danneskiold, a spokesman for the lab in New Mexico where the first atomic bomb was built in 1945. "As a precaution, we've told them [workers] to steer clear of those areas." The trees are in Bayo Canyon, about 40 miles northwest of Santa Fe, which is popular with horseback riders and hikers. The site, formerly known as Technical Area 10, was used in the 1940s and '50s as a place where scientists studied explosions. Danneskiold said the area where radioactive contamination has been detected is a one-acre site in Bayo Canyon, where all the trees were blown away during tests on explosives. That area has been fenced off to workers and the public. The lab is warning workers not to remove wood thinned in the 30 surrounding acres as a precaution against possible radioactive contamination. "There is no risk to recreational users," Danneskiold said. But not everyone agrees. "Recreational users should be worried. Breathing that dust is not good," said Greg Mello, who heads the Los Alamos Study Group, which monitors lab activity. He contends there are several contaminated sites near the lab. Hundreds of houses and thousands of acres were burned in May 2000 when fire ravaged the area near Los Alamos and threatened the laboratory. Since then, forest and county officials have been thinning parts of the pine forest to reduce the risk of fire, said Bill Armstrong, a forester with the U.S. Forest Service. |