A team of specially trained workers has been busy excavating plutonium-laden dirt one bulldozer load at a time along rugged canyons in the shadow of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The work is part of a $3 billion clean-up effort at the northern New Mexico lab where the atomic bomb was developed decades ago. Dirt is bagged and then tested for radioactivity levels.
The bag is then put on an 18-wheeler and be transported to disposal site in Utah.
But other steps include pumping out a contaminated aquifer and building new stormwater systems.
Doug Hintze, who oversees cleanup for the Department of Energy at Los Alamos, says there is no immediate hazard to the public.
Advocacy groups, however, say polluted water is doing damage and sickening animals.
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Information from: KUNM-FM, http://kunm.unm.edu/
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