“The Board is concerned that this significant level of access denial and limitation is occurring simultaneously with a considerable increase in production at defense nuclear facilities and regulatory change,” said the report.
Nuclear Newswire | July 30, 2026 ans.org
According to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) report, a fire occurred in a glovebox in the plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory on June 15. A test involving nonnuclear material was underway in the furnace inside the glovebox at the time of the incident.
An explanation for the cause of the fire has yet to be released. The incident has incited discussions among laboratory personnel and management regarding fire safety practices at the facility, including concerns raised by resident inspectors that most gloveboxes in the facility lack automatic fire suppression and that multiple similar preventable incidents have occurred at the facility in the past few years.
What we know: The DNFSB report said that on June 15, personnel were conducting a thermal treatment test of an americium recovery resin. The resin, which contained no nuclear material, had been placed in a furnace inside a glovebox. Having received a permit to do so, they left the room unattended, and when they returned they “smelled an unexpected odor and then saw smoke and subsequently flames coming from the furnace.”