CRISISBOOM

freep

 A helicopter flies over the Los Alamos Laboratory on Wednesday as smoke rises from the Las Conchas fire in Los Alamos, N.M. Scientists are sampling the air, looking for chemicals and radiological materials. / JAE C. HONG/Associated Press

 

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — The U.S. government sent a plane equipped with radiation monitors over the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory Wednesday as a 110-square-mile wildfire burned at its doorstep, putting thousands of scientific experiments on hold for days.

Lab authorities described the monitoring as a precaution, and they, along with outside experts on nuclear engineering, expressed confidence that the blaze would Read more…