LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Pickup trucks believed present at the world's first nuclear bomb test and whiskey bottles were just a few of the items unearthed by a cleanup of one of Los Alamos National Laboratory's original toxic sites.
Workers also extracted 43,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris and toxic soil from the area just a mile from downtown Los Alamos.
The three-year, $212 million excavation project was completed last month. Lab officials boast the tract will be suitable for residential development.
But cleaning up the greater lab complex is far from complete. And New Mexico officials are increasing pressure on the lab to accelerate removal of thousands of barrels of plutonium-tainted waste.
The presence of those barrels made national headlines this summer when the massive Las Conchas fire singed lab property.
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