
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory sponsors Hazmat Challenge

Los Alamos National Laboratory sits on top of a once-remote mesa in northern New Mexico with the Jemez mountains as a backdrop to research and innovation covering multi-disciplines from bioscience, sustainable energy sources, to plasma physics and new materials.
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Competition test skills of hazardous materials response teams
Los Alamos, New Mexico, July 27, 2009—Seven hazardous materials response teams from New Mexico and Oklahoma will test their skills at the 13th annual Hazmat Challenge July 28-31 sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The challenge provides hazardous materials responders the opportunity to network and learn new techniques under realistic conditions in a safe environment.
Held at the Laboratory’s Technical Area 49, the event challenges participants to respond to simulated hazardous materials emergencies involving a rail car, a clandestine laboratory, transportation and industrial piping scenarios, a simulated radiological release, and responding to an emergency in a confined space, said Chris Rittner of the Laboratory’s Emergency Operations Division. The finale of the Hazmat Challenge is an obstacle course; teams are graded and earn points based on their response skills.
The Laboratory began the Hazmat Challenge in 1996 as a way to hone the skills of its own members. The competition now offers a training opportunity for other New Mexico and regional hazardous materials response teams. Winning teams receive a plaque.
A brief video about the 2008 Hazmat Challenge is on the Laboratory’s
Web site and is one of the more popular shows on the Lab’s YouTube
channel.
For more information on this year’s challenge, contact
either Rittner at crittner@lanl.gov or Andrea Romero at
adromero@lanl.gov by e-mail
Editor’s Note: News media representatives interested in attending the Hazmat Challenge can contact the Communications Office at 505-667-7000 to coordinate travel to the site.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.