Title: FW: [globalnews] Los Alamos Runoff Has Higher Plutonium Levels
SF New Mexican: State Says Los Alamos Runoff Has Highest Plutonium Levels* *
<http://www.sfnewmexican.com>
Associated Press 01/31/2003
* LOS ALAMOS, N.M. ? Elevated levels of plutonium have been
detected in storm water runoff leaving Los Alamos National
Laboratory property since the May 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, the
state Environment Department said. *
Samples collected from Pueblo Canyon after six storms in 2001 and
2002 had plutonium-239 levels of 94 picocuries per liter, about
100 times the level the lab reported between 1995 and 1999,
according to a news release from the Environment Department.
The Cerro Grande Fire burned in the upper Pueblo Canyon watershed
and created a dramatic increase in the water runoff. That runoff
accelerated erosion of contaminated areas, the department said.
Plutonium-239 is a radioactive manmade element produced since the
1940s for use in nuclear weapons. If ingested or inhaled, its
radioactive particles are "damaging to lung tissue and internal
organs," according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The state Environment Department said it has informed the
Department of Energy of its concern and recommended that the
agency
Santa Fe New Mexican 2003
