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A new study by a panel of experts suggests that an earthquake near the Los Alamos National Laboratory could cause a fire, which might then, in turn, cause a massive radiation release. Scared yet? If the Cold War taught us anything, it's that radiation doesn't stay put, and it takes a long, long time to go away.

On the other hand, what are the chances that this could actually happen? The panel who made the recommendations typically focuses on worst-case scenarios. Usually, those aren't containable, even by a really good sprinkler.

We looked into it a little bit and found cause for comfort, and alarm.

The good news is, the biggest earthquake to hit the area was a magnitude 5.5 quake, way back in 1918. Since 1972, the largest recorded quake was a 3.2, barely enough to put ripples in your beer.

Less comforting is the fact that the officials at the lab responded to the panel's recommendations by basically saying, "Hey, we bought some extra fire extinguishers and put the plutonium in a stronger box, OK? We got this."

Wasn't the whole point of their report that you don't got this?

Finally, we were really surprised to learn that the panel that's supposed to protect us from worst-case scenarios is at least three years behind the college student whose paper we linked to. Now, that's a little scary.