Attempts to ensure that forest fires can’t overrun the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where physicists built the first atomic bomb, have hit a snag. Workers thinning the woods have been told to steer clear of some trees because they may be radioactive. The contamination is thought to be limited to under half a hectare where explosives tests took place during the 1940s and 1950s.
The area is fenced off, but as a precaution workers have been warned not to chop down trees in the surrounding 12 hectares. Los Alamos says there is no risk to horse riders and hikers…
