Continuous Air Monitoring

We routinely measure the composition of matter in the ambient atmosphere at the Lab and in the community.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has 68 radiological air sampling locations that continuously monitor the air, making it among the most thoroughly monitored environments in the world:

• 43 ambient air-monitoring stations.
• 25 monitored exhaust stacks from Lab facilities.
• 8 meteorological towers.
• During events such as wildfire, the Laboratory conducts extra sampling to perform specialized analyses or more rapid evaluations.
• The Lab has 12 high-volume sample locations, which can be activated to characterize wildfire smoke or other operational issues as needed. These look for radioactive and other potentially hazardous airborne releases.
• All air-monitoring data the Laboratory collects is available to the public via the annual Radionuclide Air Emissions Report submitted to EPA and the Annual Site Environmental Report.