Is Los Alamos Safe From an Environmental Perspective?

[aries63]

But how many of those 9000 staff live in Los Alamos? Almost everyone I have met who works there lives in Española, Santa Fe, or Albuquerque (because I live in ABQ). I have met some LANL retirees who live in Los Alamos.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by aries63

But how many of those 9000 staff live in Los Alamos?

Don't know, could not find out any real numbers...

Originally Posted by aries63

Almost everyone I have met who works there lives in Española, Santa Fe, or Albuquerque (because I live in ABQ). I have met some LANL retirees who live in Los Alamos.

I've met several who lived in Jemez Springs, Rio Rancho and ABQ. Several who as they were approaching retirement would sell their Los Alamos home and move to ABQ. And in Germantown, MD, you can find many LANL contractors who moved over to Federal service with DoE. My wife did a lot of work with LANL and SNL.

In my work at Los Alamos, it appeared to be a large LANL family. I would not be concerned with the environmental perspectives at Los Alamos.

[ABQ2015]

Originally Posted by aries63

But how many of those 9000 staff live in Los Alamos? Almost everyone I have met who works there lives in Española, Santa Fe, or Albuquerque (because I live in ABQ). I have met some LANL retirees who live in Los Alamos.

That's why the sidewalks roll up at 5 pm. It is a busy place during the day but at night it can be hard to even find a good restaurant that's open for dinner.

[professor gimp]

I am a postdoc at the lab and currently live in Los Alamos. I have two children, 7.5 and 3.5, and was also concerned about raising a family here. I found no particular reason to be concerned but I encourage you to look into environmental issues and radiation concerns yourself. I did find a higher incidence of skin cancer but that can easily be attributed to the higher UV index of living at a higher altitude.

One environmental concern I was unaware of before moving here was the real cost of wildfires. Sure, Los Alamos was devastated by wildfires in the recent past (Cerro Grande and Las Conchas fires). I knew that, you can read about it. What I didn't know is that there is a fire season here. While it is uncommon for the town to be in any real danger from fires. Smoke from the fires does blanket the town if there's a nearby fire. There can be thick smoke in the air and it is a concern for those with breathing issues (asthma, emphysema, etc.) and the air smells like a campfire.

Like I said, I work at LANL and was faced with the decision to live in town (very small and isolated) or live in Santa Fe (at least it's a city). My choice was easy in the end for a number of reasons. The schools in Los Alamos are among the best in the nation and, by far, the best in New Mexico, there is VERY low crime, and while there is NO night life here there are plenty of wholesome activities for the kidddos.

Good luck!

[jhefner]

I have done a lot of research and it's really made things more clear. The only area of concern really is the waste site at Area G, which means I won't look for housing in White Rock. That being said, one thing I am unclear about is the potential for Plutonium particles to get in the air from the waste around the canyons. I know there was concern when the fires were going on around the lab that they could stir up plutonium, but what I don't know is about the waste that was dumped into the canyons (bayo and acid) to get stirred up and into the air?

[professor gimp]

I don't know enough to comment on this.