..This building - basically a light steel shed used to store nuclear waste - contained up to 20 kilograms of fissile material, enough to make several nuclear weapons (see "LANL shuts down amid terrorist acts on East Coast," The New Mexican, 9/12/01). This plutonium was within about 200 feet of the Cerro Grande fire. While the material was not in direct danger, due to the lack of vegetation in the immediate area, its presence at this location was contrary to repeated LANL public pronouncements at the time. DOE safety officials apparently either did not know the material was there, or...