A New Mexico wildfire has breached the boundary of Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the top nuclear weapons research facilities in the US.

On Monday, officials said that they had detected "no off-site releases of contamination" and said the facilities face "no immediate threat".

The lab was closed on Monday and was to remain so on Tuesday. The surrounding town has been ordered evacuated.

The lab, opened during World War II, led the development of the atomic bomb.

By Monday evening, the Las Conchas fire had burned through 49,000 acres of forests, canyons, and mesas to the south and west of the lab in northern New Mexico.

The fire had reached the lab's southwestern boundary and leapt a state road onto the land, burning roughly an acre, state fire officials said.

"No facilities face immediate threat, and all nuclear and hazardous materials are accounted for and protected," officials said in a statement.

The lab employs about 11,800 people, and about 12,000 people live in the town of Los Alamos.

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