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Workers contaminated at Los Alamos National Laboratory as glovebox window removed January 28, 2026 A smoldering electromagnet brought the local fire department to Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium facility, known as PF-4, in early January, according to a report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Workers on Jan. 6 observed smoke rising from a glovebox in a lab room. Roughly 250 workers were evacuated from the wing, according to a spokesperson for Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos Fire Department was called onto the scene. Fire personnel found an overheated and smoking solenoid, a type of electromagnet, underneath the glovebox. No flames were actually observed, LANL spokesperson Laura Mullane wrote in an email to The New Mexican. The solenoid in question had been out of commission for a decade and abandoned in place in the facility. “Facility management has developed several corrective actions to improve event response based on lessons learned from this event,” the report for the week of Jan. 9 states. “Management is also evaluating what can be done regarding poorly documented out-of-service equipment that may still be energized and thus pose a potential hazard to workers and the facility operations." In response to a question about what corrective actions were taken, Mullane wrote that the first order of business was de-energizing the circuit connected to the solenoid and remove it from service. “We also performed a thorough review of the facility looking for similar hazards, but found none,” Mullane wrote. “The safety of our workforce and the community continues to be a top priority, and our alert systems and employee training worked as expected, ensuring the safe evacuation of employees and the security of the facility.” The incident also proved a test for a new fire alarm system in the plutonium facility. According to the report, the new system, while not fully tested but “largely functional,” was able to detect the smoke and alert the lab’s operations center. In 2024, after a small overnight fire burned itself out overnight at PF-4, a spokesperson for the laboratory told The New Mexican the new fire alarm system would include “many more smoke detectors, and other alarm initiating devices.” The current fire systems are certified and functional, Mullane wrote, and the new system is expected to be put in service either later this year or early next year.
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