Local News

The Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Los Alamos Police Department's bomb squad responded to a call regarding a suspicious package at Technical Area 3 earlier this afternoon.

An investigation of the package was conducted and it was determined to be a non-hazardous, unattended package.

During the investigation of the incident, access to the immediate area was restricted. Restricted access to the Otowi Building and other buildings in the area at TA-3 has been lifted.

Los Alamos police chief Wayne Torpy said “Our folks went out there and we are usually called when there is a suspicious package. It is somewhat routine but there was no evidence of a problem. The package was left behind by accident.”

It was not the first time the bomb squad had been called to the lab this week.

LAPD responded to another call Tuesday morning.

According to lab spokesman Kevin Roark, “It was nothing hazardous or threatening.  This was a result of our standard mailroom screening process that calls for a Hazardous Devices Team (HDT) assessment and LAPD response when incoming mail/packages don't meet certain packaging or addressing criteria.”

Los Alamos National Laboratory has announced that for the first time, irradiated uranium fuel has been recycled and reused for molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production, with virtually no losses in Mo-99 yields or uranium recovery.

This demonstrates the viability of the separation process, as well as the potential for environmentally- and cost-friendly fuel recycling. Medical isotope production technology has advanced significantly now that scientists have made key advances in separating Mo-99 from an irradiated, low-enriched uranium (LEU) solution.

Low-Enriched Uranium as a Source of Mo-99

Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) is the most commonly used medical isotope today, accounting for about 50,000 medical imaging procedures daily in the United States. Tc-99m is derived from the parent isotope Mo-99, predominantly produced from the fission of uranium-235 in highly enriched uranium targets (HEU) in aging foreign reactors. The North American supply of Tc-99m was severely disrupted when the Chalk River nuclear reactor in Canada experienced an outage several years ago.

Say what you want about former Los Alamos resident Elizabeth Bateman, she was really good at her job; and that job was allegedly fooling people into believing she had cancer.

According to an arrest warrant obtained from the Steamboat Springs, Colo. Police Department, Bateman, 34, went to great lengths trying to convince people she had cancer, including such details as shaving her head, taking saline solution injections and using a wheelchair and an oxygen tank as visual props to convince people.  

Bateman first came to the attention of Steamboat Springs Police when a former friend, Michelle Beck, and an anonymous tip alerted police that Bateman was now using her fake battle with cancer to scam people out of thousands of dollars through a charity she set up called “Friends Through the Fight.” 

The FBI, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, and Pojoaque Tribal Police Department are looking for a woman who robbed a Wells Fargo bank branch in the Pueblo of Pojoaque Tuesday afternoon.

The suspect is described as a Native American or Hispanic female, approximately 5’3” tall, with a medium to heavy build.

She wore sunglasses, a black and white bandana around her head, a white surgical mask over her face, blue gloves, a dark hooded sweatshirt, light colored pants, and dark shoes.

The suspect may have acne scars on her face.