the neighbors

Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

Posted by Rudolfo Carrillo on June 27, 2008 at 1:00pm

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I live very near a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Well, about five miles away, maybe.

By some estimates, it’s the largest in the world.

That’s not meant to be a revelation. It’s just a fact and I’m really not too worried about it. It’s always been in the background.

I’ve lived here for 32 years, and if I should be worried, please someone, chime in and let me know.

Right now, I’m more worried about my addiction to Pop ‘n’ Taco chili dogs. That could end my life too, but probably in a slower, more agonizing way.

It’s funny (strange, not ha-ha) how the nuclear stuff seems be below the cultural radar in these parts. To be fair, there are strong feelings on both sides of the coin, among those that know about Albuquerque’s nuclear heritage. More often, the topic remains occluded by all the other things that fill up our lives.

It’s as if it were a subtext, visible to only the loftiest of wizards, even though we have a popular Atomic Museum and a good number of our citizens are involved in the nuclear industry.

I know that some of the information needed to understand all of this is out there, as someone once said. It’s intense information though, if not in quantity, then certainly in quality.

Nuclear weapons and most of the infrastructure that dances along, have played an integral part of this city’s development and have shaped the culture here, too.

Here’s what I know and also remember:

• My friend Doug Bedell had a father who worked at Kirtland Air Force Base. He told me that he had been out to Manzano Base, which was hidden behind Four Hills. It was like a city within a city, he said. Very few people stationed there ever left. The area was surrounded by electric fences and patrolled by fellows with machine guns. The airforce closed the base in 1982, as it prepared to open a new, state-of-the-art facility to house the weapons.

• As a teenager growing up in the heights, I frequently dreamt of nuclear weapons. I would also sneak into my father’s home office to read his civil defense manuals. When I asked my mother about the nukes stored at the other end of the mountain, she would laugh and say that she thought we lived far enough away.

• In 1992, the Kirtland Underground Munitions Storage Complex (KUMSC) became operational, in part to assist with deactivation and dismantlement activities taking place at Pantex, a nuclear facility near Amarillo, Texas. In part, this has led the facility to becoming one of the largest stockpiles on the planet.

• KUMSC is a highly secure area. Senator Jeff Bingaman has made efforts to keep it that way.

• About five years ago, I stumbled upon a protest in front of the Atomic Museum. Several people, including some acquaintances of mine, were protesting because a Redstone rocket was being displayed in the museum courtyard. I remember thinking how scary it was that human beings used to sit on the top of such devices, trying to reach the stars.

• Practically next door to me, there is a huge military base. They are doing research on nuclear weapons over there. They are storing nuclear weapons over there. I hope that everything is going well at that neighbor’s house, because I want to eat my chili dogs in peace.

Comment by sophie on June 27, 2008 at 2:08pm: There's a fairly great documentary about the Pantax plant and loony Amarillo called Plutonium Circus.

Comment by Doug R on June 27, 2008 at 2:57pm: FYI....when I was growing up in ABQ (60's - 70's) my father worked with many ex-military people as you can expect back then. He was told that because of "Manzano" the Duke City was 5th on the Soviet Union's priority list of targets in case of a nuclear exchange. That alone tells you alot.

Comment by jeff on June 27, 2008 at 3:12pm: july is national hot dog month, brought to you by the fine folks at the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.

which lead to to the BEST domain ever...http://meatami.com/

Comment by jeff on June 27, 2008 at 3:14pm: now how on earth would we know the priority of USSR targets back then?
they told us??????

Comment by mombat on June 27, 2008 at 3:23pm: I remember the same thing from being a kid. It was morbidly comforting to know that we would would obliterated rather than become mutants in a nuclear winter. (I was really fun as a teenager).

Comment by ayax on June 27, 2008 at 3:28pm: jeff: my informant tells me General Dmitri Polyakov was the source...

Comment by the boy on June 27, 2008 at 3:52pm: When out of town for college, I often (in a absurdly petty way) fall back on "My state could be the third most powerful nuclear nation if we quit the union" argument in conversation with those who laugh off New Mexico as a joke of a state. More seriously, I do think the whole ethos of being (at various times) the nuclear testing ground, development site, and storage shed kind of lends this weird, eerie glow to the name of New Mexico in the history books, and it's a powerful undercurrent in our state's identity.

Comment by Laura on June 27, 2008 at 4:25pm: I think about those neighbors a lot, actually. (And I know a lot of other people do, too, including those who have been trying to push the city for years to come up with a realistic evacuation plan in the event of an accident.)

What I think about most is the fact that I live in such close proximity to "weapons of mass destruction"--weapons that have the capability of killing hundreds, thousands of other civilians who are just like me. That sense of darkness, hovering just on the edge of town, often haunts me.

Comment by Master of Disaster on June 27, 2008 at 4:51pm: Speaking of morbid teenagers, I grew up about a half hour outside of NYC, I always said that if they were gonna drop a bomb on Manhattan, I'd drive straight into the city to be incinerated rather than try to survive a nuclear holocaust. Good to know I can take the same comfort in my new hometown. (LOL)

Comment by Bluegoo on June 27, 2008 at 6:46pm: The nuclear pits are deep underground. So does that mean if they were to explode it would be like the testing place outside Las vegas ? A new cave underground than the dirt, rock etc on top falls in and than you have a new hole in the ground but not much gets out ?