U.S. Underestimates Peril if Los Alamos Were to Leak Plutonium, Study Says

[Ponietz]

The Energy Department has underestimated the potential deadly consequences should plutonium escape the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which produces bomb cores for America’s nuclear weapons, a study published today by independent scientists found.

The chances of a leak are considered minuscule. But one is possible, especially following a natural disaster like an earthquake. Plutonium could escape from protective work stations inside a building called Plutonium Facility 4, or PF-4, and ignite. Then, if one or more of the building’s safety systems fail, radioactive plutonium particles could enter the outside air and spread through the surrounding communities in a plume of smoke.

The Energy Department, which manages the country’s nuclear weapons production, had previously concluded that a so-called loss of containment at the lab could spread about one kilogram of plutonium, a radioactive metal, leading to nine cancer deaths on average in the surrounding area. But modeling in the new study, published in Science and Global Security, showed the potential for much worse: Hundreds of people who inhale or ingest particles from a leak could eventually die from cancer, the researchers said.

And in the most serious possibility modeled in the study — if more than one kilogram of plutonium escaped — the town of Los Alamos could become unlivable and radioactive particles could spread across state lines. As many as 3,200 people could eventually get cancer, the researchers estimated, leading to about 1,000 deaths. The remediation of land could run up to an estimated $150 billion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/climate/nuclear-bomb-energy-department-lab.html

The subtext is chilling. The U.S. lives in a glass house.