A forest fire adjacent to the Los Alamos National Laboratory prompted an evacuation of the 11,000-employee lab Tuesday.
LANL announced it has suspended research and closed the site to all nonessential employees through at least Thursday. CNN reported the Los Conchas fire has burned more than 61,000 acres since it started Sunday, and it has reached the southern border of the lab property. It's also close to the 40-square-mile site's west border. A smaller fire broke out on lab grounds Monday and was quickly extinguished.
The lab's director was quoted as saying the facility and its radioactive materials are secure.
Originally built to coordinate research surrounding the Manhattan Project, 51 percent of LANL's 2010 budget was allocated to nuclear weapons programs, according to the lab.
The remainder of its budget funds a range of research areas that include supercomputing, nanotechnology, medicine and civilian nuclear energy. The lab has helped develop advanced nuclear fuels, conducted reactor design research and helped study the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site in Nevada.