Wildfire prompts closure of Los Alamos lab
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 27 (UPI) -- A nearby wildfire forced the closure Monday of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Officials said the lab's hazardous materials were protected.
"All laboratory facilities will be closed for all activities and non-essential employees are directed to remain off-site," said a posting on the facility's Web site. "Employees are considered non-essential and should not report to work unless specifically directed by their line managers."
Officials said the fire was reported to be less than a mile from the lab's southwestern boundaries late Sunday, CNN reported. The lab is about 35 miles from Santa Fe.
Special crews were sent to Water Canyon near the lab to protect the facility.
All radioactive and hazardous material had been accounted for and protected, officials said.
The wildfire, which is not contained, had burned between 4,000 acres and 6,000 acres, The Los Alamos Monitor reported.
County officials asked residents in Los Alamos and White Rock to voluntarily leave. Cochiti Mesa, Las Conchas, Bandelier National Monument and campgrounds near the fire have been evacuated, the Monitor reported.
In Arizona, the Monument fire has burned 57 homes and more than 29,000 acres.
As of Sunday, the blaze was 75 percent contained.
Southern Arizona's other major wildfire, the Horseshoe Two, was fully contained Saturday after scorching nearly 223,000 acres.
Officials said the massive Wallow fire in the northeastern part of the state was 77 percent contained Sunday, having burned more than 538,000 acres.
Libyan rebels make push toward Tripoli
TRIPOLI, Libya, June 27 (UPI) -- Clashes between rebel forces and troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi broke out about 50 miles southwest of Tripoli, a rebel spokesman said.
The rebels said they were making a push for the country's capital, the BBC reported Monday.
The rebel spokesman in the Nafsua Mountains reported heavy fighting near the town of Bir al-Ghanam.
The International Criminal Court was expected to decide Monday whether to issue an arrest warrant for Gadhafi.
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he has evidence tying Gadhafi, his son, Saif, and brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi, head of Libya's intelligence agency, to crimes against humanity in their attempt to quell opponents fighting to oust Gadhafi for months.
The son is Saif al-Islam Gadhafi. Another son named Saif (Saif al-Arab Gadhafi) was killed in an airstrike in late April.
The BBC said fighting near Bir al-Ghanam began Sunday when government forces tried to cut off the rebels by attacking from the rear.
Since the rebels' weaponry was limited, most of them were focused on a push from the western mountains toward Tripoli, said the rebels' defense leader, Jalal al-Dgheli.
Opposition forces also could soon begin a push toward the capital from the east near Brega.
"What we're learning from defectors is that Gadhafi's supporters are getting fewer, people who are close to him are abandoning him and his inner circle is getting smaller by the day," al-Dgheli told the BBC.
Bachmann: 'Assurance' God wants her to run
WATERLOO, Iowa, June 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who kicks off her presidential bid Monday, said she has a "sense of assurance" God wants her to run for president.
Bachmann told CBS' "Face the Nation" she "gave my heart to Jesus Christ" at age 16 and prayed to God about seeking political office on the state and federal levels.
"That's really what that means," she said. "It means that -- that I have a sense of assurance about the direction I think that God is speaking into my heart that I should go."
Bachmann, a Tea Party movement favorite and the House Tea Party Caucus chairwoman, enters the presidential race in her Waterloo, Iowa, birthplace running neck and neck in an Iowa caucus poll with presumed front-runner former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- 22 percent for her and 23 percent for Romney.
The caucus is the first major electoral event of the U.S. presidential nominating process.
Businessman Herman Cain was third with 10 percent in the Des Moines Register poll, while all other candidates were in single digits.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul from Texas each received 7 percent, while former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty received 6 percent.
Bachmann told "Fox News Sunday" she was insulted to be asked to comment on criticism that because of numerous political gaffes and factually incorrect statements she was "a flake," "because I'm a serious person."
Neb. nuke plant said safe despite flooding
FORT CALHOUN, Neb., June 27 (UPI) -- A Nebraska nuclear power plant is protected even though a protective berm holding back floodwaters collapsed, sending water to the plant's edge, officials said.
The 500-megawatt Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station, 19 miles from Omaha, "is still protected," Mike Jones, spokesman for plant owner-operator Omaha Public Power District, told CNN.
"This was an additional, a secondary, level of protection that we had put up," Jones said. "The plant remains protected to the level it would have been if the aqua berm had not been added."
More than 2 feet of water rushed in around buildings and electrical transformers as the swollen Missouri River overflowed its banks and rushed over an 8-foot-high, 2,000-foot-long berm that collapsed after being punctured by a piece of heavy equipment, Jones said.
The chances of floodwaters getting into the building where the nuclear reactor core is kept are almost zero, he said.
The core contains the nuclear fuel components where nuclear reactions take place.
The river, overflowing due to heavy rainfall and melting snow from the Rocky Mountains, is not expected to rise higher than the level the plant was designed to protect against, the Omaha power district said.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko was scheduled to visit the plant Monday.
