LANL, Los Alamos County to Hold Emergency Preparedness Exercise Feb. 24

Los Alamos National Laboratory has scheduled an emergency-preparedness exercise for Tuesday, February 24, 2026, beginning at approximately 9:00 a.m. MST and running for approximately six hours, laboratory officials announced in a news release republished by Los Alamos Reporter and LaDailyPost. The Laboratory emphasized the controlled nature of the event: “The event is only an exercise.”

The exercise will test response capacity across LANL and partner organizations. As the release states, “The exercise will test the preparedness of personnel who would respond in the case of an actual emergency.” LANL’s original notice and the local reposts frame the drill as an opportunity to evaluate personnel readiness for real incidents and to refine coordination among responders.

Local visibility is expected during the exercise; the news release warned that “Some elements of this exercise may be observable to the public, such as increased emergency vehicle traffic, smoke, workers in protective equipment performing simulated activities, and ‘exercise in progress’ signage in or near the affected areas.” Residents near central LANL facilities, White Rock and Los Alamos townsite routes should anticipate temporary increases in emergency traffic and staged smoke effects consistent with training scenarios.

LANL said its Emergency Management Division is coordinating with county partners: “The Laboratory’s Emergency Management Division works closely with Los Alamos County and participating local organizations to keep the community apprised of simulated emergency exercises.” Both Los Alamos County responders and health services were listed among the partner agencies the lab intends to exercise alongside, reflecting multi-agency participation even if specific state or federal participants were not named in the release.

Federal oversight of LANL emergency exercises has precedent in recent assessments. “The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) conducted an independent assessment of the emergency management program during the 2024 full-participation exercise at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL),” a DOE EA document states, noting that “Assessment activities were conducted from April to June 2024.” That DOE assessment named Triad National Security, LLC and the National Nuclear Security Administration Los Alamos Field Office (NA-LA) among entities evaluated, underlining the programmatic ties between LANL and federal oversight bodies.

The lab’s release did not specify the simulated scenario, exact Technical Areas involved, or whether any public roads would be closed. As stated in the notice republished locally, the public should expect observable training activity beginning about 9:00 a.m. and lasting roughly six hours, and that “The event is only an exercise.”