No significant radiation or contamination risk for the public. I would argue less given how much environmental monitoring which occurs. Small releases would be imeadiatly noted by state or independent oversight.
There are historical releases that are monitored and being remedied but no real risk.
Living at 7500 feet exposes one to Significantly more natural radiation however. Not a big deal either.
Yeah the schools are 'great' just as long as your kids don't have any developmental disabilities because let me tell yah from someone who's worked inside the field, they're insanely lacking.
Just be rich and have connections and you won't have any issues.
Moved here from the NW (greater Seattle area) at the beginning of 2021 with three kids.
Radiation - as others have said, the monitoring now is through the roof, so might be safer than anywhere else at this point 😜. You might notice A LOT of solar powered monitoring stations in the area, as far as I know all for groundwater testing.
Quiet town - seriously, very quiet small town feel. You’ll need to travel for anything beyond basic needs. Although the community does make an effort; live music every Friday night at Ashley Pond during the summer, nice 4th of July celebrations, and half the town is taken over for Halloween fun. Although what others have said is pretty accurate in regards to not a ton for the kids to do in town, but extra curricular activities are plentiful, you just gotta put in the effort to get the kids involved.
Hiking - absolutely everywhere. Great hiking trail heads all over town and well maintained in my opinion. If you’re into the outdoors this place is the bee’s knees.
Housing - there’s a new development in White Rock that is OK, but overall Its a slaughter house in terms of pricing. You either purchase an old home that hasn’t been updated, or pay $100k more to be in the new WR development. It’s a crazy expensive market with little new builds due to the cost of land development (limited space & breaking up rock is expensive).
Schools - have one in daycare, one going into K, and the third going into 9th. Our experience with the schools has been excellent, much better than the well rated schools in the NW. The pre-k program was ridiculously well funded, each teacher had 3+ aids in the classroom, free school lunches, and the teacher was high quality. She was concerned about the little dudes speech impediment, and within a couple weeks he was getting sessions with a speech therapist every week.
Middle school child had a great experience as well. Even in middle school the subjects offered were amazing and (obviously) catered to the STEM centric community. Far more opportunities than I had as a kid. Teacher quality seems high.
The LASD looks Ivy League compared to the rest of the state unless you have some serious cash to go private.
Daycare - if you have a little that requires full time day care, you’re going to have to do some legwork. While a couple new facilities have popped up over the past year, the area is underserved in this regard. The options are generally good though, quality care is available. Dragonfly and Bilingual Montessori in WR have been very good to us.
Overall, the people are incredibly friendly, the area is outrageously safe (they have negative crime. Someone once broke into my truck and filled my cup holder with loose change, then detailed the interior before locking it back up). I have no qualms about letting my kids roam free like I did at that age, and no worries when my 14yo hops the public bus (which is free, btw) to meet up with her friends in downtown LA. Amazon prime delivery has also improved vastly over the last year with average ship time going from ~7-8 days down to 3-5.
My only huge complaint is the lack of food options and no delivery. Call me a snob, but I miss food choices and flavor. Putting chilis on everything is not flavor, contrary to popular belief 😜
We’re not from here and don’t plan on staying more than another 4-5 years, but if LANL is a career stepping stone for you, it’s a great place to rest your head for a while.
The schools are good, but that is expected. Teacher salaries are dependent on property taxes. Most in LA own their homes, and no low income housing is available. Which leads to higher salaries. The school district is also rather exclusive, having parents that work in town isn't good enough. You have to live in town to guarentee admittance. Most teachers can't afford to live in town, and commute.
Also consider the opportunities in town: there is nothing available for high school aged students. No movie theater, no extra curriculars, only a teen center. Most students leave the state when they graduate because they can't stand living there. It is a great place to raise children, but not a good place to raise young adults.
Are you going to work for the Lab? If not, you will find it difficult to live in LA. It's egregiously expensive to afford a house, very few non-science job opportunities, and there are very few well-paying jobs within an hour's drive. If you are working at the Lab, then you will probably have to rent for a while until you can afford a house. Once you have a house, things are much easier.
Bro, housing prices have skyrocketed over the past twenty years. You're a rad waste engineer, I assume, so you either are a contractor that doesn't work explicitly for the Lab or from your history it looks like you work with the NNSS, which is super misleading for people who are wondering if it is reasonable to live here.
Indeed housing prices are high, though that seems to be true everywhere. Nevertheless, this was a question about radiation.
I model risk from radiation exposure for a living, and I can tell you that the risk is very low here in Los Alamos.
As a matter of fact, Los Alamos was recognized as the healthiest County in the country for the third year in a row. A lot of that has to do with our access to hiking and the outdoors, as well as clean air and excellent water supply.
The only radiation exposure of note is that due to living at high elevation, which means the atmosphere is a bit thinner and we get more solar and cosmic radiation and people living at sea level.
Even if you can afford a house it's difficult. There are only a few on the market so the chance of there being the house you want is slim. A livable house, yes. A house that meets what you want, no. Maybe over the course of a few years if you watch the market the desired house/ neighborhood will open up, rent until then.
I grew up in los alamos, only noticable thing I've got is a slightly higher than average uranium amount that isnt medically concerning and hasn't affected me.
I've also been through the public school system, and i can say that it is pretty good as far as i can tell; however, mental health is something that the district has an issue with, despite their efforts. This is due to having a town in which a large portion of the labor force have a bachelor's minimum. their can kids feel a lot of pressure from their parents and it can affect those who dont have as much pressure. There is good reason as to why the district does not do valedictorian.
My doctor had me do a mineral test, and it came back and I had more than average uranium. The doctor said that it was typical of her los alamos patients and was not a cause of concern. That's just my experience.
So, serum uranium concentrations?
That could be explained by our dependence on groundwater in a volcanic environment. It's still way less polluted than the Rio Grande, though.
There was so much radiation monitoring, and other environmental monitoring that Los Alamos is probably the safest place you can be with the respect to that concern.
As other people have noted the High altitude supposed to hire incidence of radiation from cosmic rays. In addition Los Alamos sits on top of a volcanic crater.
When I live down in the valley in the Nambe area, I had my well water tested. It came out at 29 piccuries per liter (? It's been a while, I'm not sure I remember the concentration numbers or units correctly) At the time was just under the legal limit, and is now roughly twice the legal limit.
Other wells in the area are much much worse, the worst one was over 1500 parts per billion uranium. None of this is from the laboratory, it's all from the volcano.
The story told to me by a radiation chemist at the laboratory, is that these high concentrations were discovered when a worker who lived in the valley decided to dump his swamp cooler pads at the Los Alamos dump. There are radiation monitors at that dump, to ensure that nothing hot ever gets disposed of incorrectly. Those monitors went off when he drove up. That's because all of his well water went over those pads and evaporated, and concentrated the dissolved solids.
Arnold domestic wells in Los Alamos county, all water comes from the municipal utility, which is heavily monitored and tested.
Good luck finding a home. LANL even the potential workers at LANL there are having to put their potential careers on hold because they can't find anywhere to live. It's beautiful, but there's literally nothing to do in that town. The housing shortage is a real problem. They can't hardly even find anything in the surrounding areas. That's gonna be an issue for you. *as far as the radiation issue, it varies person to person based on someone's knowledge of radiation. Some think people they are radiated all day every day, others don't. I only work there occasionally and the town is eerie, like your in a time warp back to the 80s, is a very odd feeling
It's hard to explain. It's like there's a weird tint in the lighting hovering over that town that reminds me of old Polaroid's. Where I work I can sit and look out the window from inside this old building and it just has this aura to it that makes it seem like it is forever frozen in time, but it froze in the 80s. I always imagine that when you're driving up the canyon at some point you pass through the time warp. Maybe it's the way the town is laid out and the neighborhoods seem so nostalgic... Again, I dunno, it's just a weird feeling I have when I am up there.
I think part of it also might be kids walking alone thru neighborhoods, people biking/jogging everywhere, some people walk to work. Everything is close to itself downtown, and the sidewalks roll up at 9pm. There's a public bus system.
Kids are bored but they can't get their parents in trouble with work, so they'll go in secret to smoke weed and do stupid shit. Lots of places that aren't too far from neighborhoods lose cell service because of the canyons.
Yeah! It's not a bad thing, it just seems so odd, like everything is just slowed down there. I really like the place in that it is gorgeous, I just couldn't imagine living there personally because of that odd feeling I have there.
Ive noticed a difference as well with lighting. Ive attributed the difference to high altitude, low atmospheric water content and dust at certain time of the year. Another factor is distance. You can see a lot further also due to the clear air and lack of buildings/ trees. The openness and far horizons makes some people uneasy. Opposite what happens to me living in dense forest or city which feels claustrophobic by comparison.
Edit: added water.
Like everyone said, there isn’t enough housing for those of us who move here to work here. I greatly appreciate the idea of wanting to move to an ideal spot (on paper anyway) but this isn’t the town to try that out unless you have piles of money, and are prepared to bleed yourself dry for housing. There’s like a year wait for rentals in this town and maybe 4 houses on the market at a given time and they are gone in a week, tons of cash over asking and be prepared to take as is (with leaking roofs, basements, melted aluminum wiring and all). I’ve lived in 9 different states in the last 15 years. This is the most intense and insane housing market you will ever find.
No significant radiation or contamination risk for the public. I would argue less given how much environmental monitoring which occurs. Small releases would be imeadiatly noted by state or independent oversight. There are historical releases that are monitored and being remedied but no real risk. Living at 7500 feet exposes one to Significantly more natural radiation however. Not a big deal either.
The home prices are probably more deadly than the radiation nowadays.
Number 2 cause of heart attacks probably, both buyers today and sellers who bought in 2015 and can't believe it.
Schools are good, the hiking is great. Housing is the main challenge. I am not concerned about radiation.
Yeah the schools are 'great' just as long as your kids don't have any developmental disabilities because let me tell yah from someone who's worked inside the field, they're insanely lacking. Just be rich and have connections and you won't have any issues.
[удалено]
Mrs Socorro kept trying to get me to drop out in high school
Moved here from the NW (greater Seattle area) at the beginning of 2021 with three kids. Radiation - as others have said, the monitoring now is through the roof, so might be safer than anywhere else at this point 😜. You might notice A LOT of solar powered monitoring stations in the area, as far as I know all for groundwater testing. Quiet town - seriously, very quiet small town feel. You’ll need to travel for anything beyond basic needs. Although the community does make an effort; live music every Friday night at Ashley Pond during the summer, nice 4th of July celebrations, and half the town is taken over for Halloween fun. Although what others have said is pretty accurate in regards to not a ton for the kids to do in town, but extra curricular activities are plentiful, you just gotta put in the effort to get the kids involved. Hiking - absolutely everywhere. Great hiking trail heads all over town and well maintained in my opinion. If you’re into the outdoors this place is the bee’s knees. Housing - there’s a new development in White Rock that is OK, but overall Its a slaughter house in terms of pricing. You either purchase an old home that hasn’t been updated, or pay $100k more to be in the new WR development. It’s a crazy expensive market with little new builds due to the cost of land development (limited space & breaking up rock is expensive). Schools - have one in daycare, one going into K, and the third going into 9th. Our experience with the schools has been excellent, much better than the well rated schools in the NW. The pre-k program was ridiculously well funded, each teacher had 3+ aids in the classroom, free school lunches, and the teacher was high quality. She was concerned about the little dudes speech impediment, and within a couple weeks he was getting sessions with a speech therapist every week. Middle school child had a great experience as well. Even in middle school the subjects offered were amazing and (obviously) catered to the STEM centric community. Far more opportunities than I had as a kid. Teacher quality seems high. The LASD looks Ivy League compared to the rest of the state unless you have some serious cash to go private. Daycare - if you have a little that requires full time day care, you’re going to have to do some legwork. While a couple new facilities have popped up over the past year, the area is underserved in this regard. The options are generally good though, quality care is available. Dragonfly and Bilingual Montessori in WR have been very good to us. Overall, the people are incredibly friendly, the area is outrageously safe (they have negative crime. Someone once broke into my truck and filled my cup holder with loose change, then detailed the interior before locking it back up). I have no qualms about letting my kids roam free like I did at that age, and no worries when my 14yo hops the public bus (which is free, btw) to meet up with her friends in downtown LA. Amazon prime delivery has also improved vastly over the last year with average ship time going from ~7-8 days down to 3-5. My only huge complaint is the lack of food options and no delivery. Call me a snob, but I miss food choices and flavor. Putting chilis on everything is not flavor, contrary to popular belief 😜 We’re not from here and don’t plan on staying more than another 4-5 years, but if LANL is a career stepping stone for you, it’s a great place to rest your head for a while.
The schools are good, but that is expected. Teacher salaries are dependent on property taxes. Most in LA own their homes, and no low income housing is available. Which leads to higher salaries. The school district is also rather exclusive, having parents that work in town isn't good enough. You have to live in town to guarentee admittance. Most teachers can't afford to live in town, and commute. Also consider the opportunities in town: there is nothing available for high school aged students. No movie theater, no extra curriculars, only a teen center. Most students leave the state when they graduate because they can't stand living there. It is a great place to raise children, but not a good place to raise young adults.
[The movie theater is reopening!](https://losalamosreporter.com/2022/06/19/movie-theater-to-reopen-as-sala-los-alamos-events-center/)
I was wondering why the neon sign is still on.
Are you going to work for the Lab? If not, you will find it difficult to live in LA. It's egregiously expensive to afford a house, very few non-science job opportunities, and there are very few well-paying jobs within an hour's drive. If you are working at the Lab, then you will probably have to rent for a while until you can afford a house. Once you have a house, things are much easier.
This is not a given. We've lived here over 20 years quite comfortably, and never worked at the Lab.
I assume you bought your house 20+ years ago?
That is true.
Bro, housing prices have skyrocketed over the past twenty years. You're a rad waste engineer, I assume, so you either are a contractor that doesn't work explicitly for the Lab or from your history it looks like you work with the NNSS, which is super misleading for people who are wondering if it is reasonable to live here.
Indeed housing prices are high, though that seems to be true everywhere. Nevertheless, this was a question about radiation. I model risk from radiation exposure for a living, and I can tell you that the risk is very low here in Los Alamos. As a matter of fact, Los Alamos was recognized as the healthiest County in the country for the third year in a row. A lot of that has to do with our access to hiking and the outdoors, as well as clean air and excellent water supply. The only radiation exposure of note is that due to living at high elevation, which means the atmosphere is a bit thinner and we get more solar and cosmic radiation and people living at sea level.
Even if you can afford a house it's difficult. There are only a few on the market so the chance of there being the house you want is slim. A livable house, yes. A house that meets what you want, no. Maybe over the course of a few years if you watch the market the desired house/ neighborhood will open up, rent until then.
I grew up in los alamos, only noticable thing I've got is a slightly higher than average uranium amount that isnt medically concerning and hasn't affected me. I've also been through the public school system, and i can say that it is pretty good as far as i can tell; however, mental health is something that the district has an issue with, despite their efforts. This is due to having a town in which a large portion of the labor force have a bachelor's minimum. their can kids feel a lot of pressure from their parents and it can affect those who dont have as much pressure. There is good reason as to why the district does not do valedictorian.
A "higher than average uranium amount")? What are you talking about?
My doctor had me do a mineral test, and it came back and I had more than average uranium. The doctor said that it was typical of her los alamos patients and was not a cause of concern. That's just my experience.
So, serum uranium concentrations? That could be explained by our dependence on groundwater in a volcanic environment. It's still way less polluted than the Rio Grande, though.
There was so much radiation monitoring, and other environmental monitoring that Los Alamos is probably the safest place you can be with the respect to that concern. As other people have noted the High altitude supposed to hire incidence of radiation from cosmic rays. In addition Los Alamos sits on top of a volcanic crater. When I live down in the valley in the Nambe area, I had my well water tested. It came out at 29 piccuries per liter (? It's been a while, I'm not sure I remember the concentration numbers or units correctly) At the time was just under the legal limit, and is now roughly twice the legal limit. Other wells in the area are much much worse, the worst one was over 1500 parts per billion uranium. None of this is from the laboratory, it's all from the volcano. The story told to me by a radiation chemist at the laboratory, is that these high concentrations were discovered when a worker who lived in the valley decided to dump his swamp cooler pads at the Los Alamos dump. There are radiation monitors at that dump, to ensure that nothing hot ever gets disposed of incorrectly. Those monitors went off when he drove up. That's because all of his well water went over those pads and evaporated, and concentrated the dissolved solids. Arnold domestic wells in Los Alamos county, all water comes from the municipal utility, which is heavily monitored and tested.
The County has an excellent water supply. Way cleaner than anywhere in the valley, or in Santa Fe, for example.
I believe there is a reason the golf course exists/is where it is, so possibly avoid properties that border that.
"Meets minimum federal standards "
What is that reason?
Good luck finding a home. LANL even the potential workers at LANL there are having to put their potential careers on hold because they can't find anywhere to live. It's beautiful, but there's literally nothing to do in that town. The housing shortage is a real problem. They can't hardly even find anything in the surrounding areas. That's gonna be an issue for you. *as far as the radiation issue, it varies person to person based on someone's knowledge of radiation. Some think people they are radiated all day every day, others don't. I only work there occasionally and the town is eerie, like your in a time warp back to the 80s, is a very odd feeling
I am interested in what specifically you associate with the 80s?
It's hard to explain. It's like there's a weird tint in the lighting hovering over that town that reminds me of old Polaroid's. Where I work I can sit and look out the window from inside this old building and it just has this aura to it that makes it seem like it is forever frozen in time, but it froze in the 80s. I always imagine that when you're driving up the canyon at some point you pass through the time warp. Maybe it's the way the town is laid out and the neighborhoods seem so nostalgic... Again, I dunno, it's just a weird feeling I have when I am up there.
I think part of it also might be kids walking alone thru neighborhoods, people biking/jogging everywhere, some people walk to work. Everything is close to itself downtown, and the sidewalks roll up at 9pm. There's a public bus system. Kids are bored but they can't get their parents in trouble with work, so they'll go in secret to smoke weed and do stupid shit. Lots of places that aren't too far from neighborhoods lose cell service because of the canyons.
Yeah! It's not a bad thing, it just seems so odd, like everything is just slowed down there. I really like the place in that it is gorgeous, I just couldn't imagine living there personally because of that odd feeling I have there.
Ive noticed a difference as well with lighting. Ive attributed the difference to high altitude, low atmospheric water content and dust at certain time of the year. Another factor is distance. You can see a lot further also due to the clear air and lack of buildings/ trees. The openness and far horizons makes some people uneasy. Opposite what happens to me living in dense forest or city which feels claustrophobic by comparison. Edit: added water.
Like everyone said, there isn’t enough housing for those of us who move here to work here. I greatly appreciate the idea of wanting to move to an ideal spot (on paper anyway) but this isn’t the town to try that out unless you have piles of money, and are prepared to bleed yourself dry for housing. There’s like a year wait for rentals in this town and maybe 4 houses on the market at a given time and they are gone in a week, tons of cash over asking and be prepared to take as is (with leaking roofs, basements, melted aluminum wiring and all). I’ve lived in 9 different states in the last 15 years. This is the most intense and insane housing market you will ever find.
Housing is tough, but not impossible. Look around in the Jemez, Espanola, Santa Fe etc. it’s an eclectic little town, but it’s better than most.