By Andy Lyman
Albuquerque, NM – Los Alamos National Laboratory will soon host the 15th annual Hazmat Competition. Hazardous material response teams from several different states will come to Northern New Mexico to compete and learn new skills.
Laboratory spokesperson Steve Sandoval says the competition will provide real life situations to test the crews. Sandoval says LANL has resources to simulate real world situations, "One of the scenarios that teams will be training on will be responding to an emergency involving a railcar. We have an actual railcar, that has been long de-commissioned that is used as a staging area and teams have an opportunity to respond to a simulated hazardous materials incident."
Sandoval says working with teams from Missouri and Oklahoma gives the laboratory a chance to network with other regional responders. He says that relationship might help if they need to cross state lines in an emergency. The competition will take place at the lab in early August.