Excavating Six Decades of Buried Secrecy, Neglect, and Flat-Out Lies in the #SanFernando Valley
By Warren Olney, January 13, 2022
"The Field Lab (#SSFL) opened in 1947, at the onset of the Cold War, and the reactor accident happened in 1959. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and a nuclear contractor kept it secret for 20 years, but there was no denying the evidence we revealed on local TV, discovered in AEC archives by the watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap.
"Today, that accident is still news, as Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be backing away from enforcing a cleanup of nuclear contamination that remains on the site. Sixty-three years since the accident, Santa Susana should remind us of the perils not only of nuclear materials but also of our short memories. This story’s hardest lesson is that when dangerous secrets get buried you often have to keep excavating them, over and over.
"Over the years, #residential development moved closer to the Field Lab, but no one ever told the public about the release of radioactive contamination which would remain dangerous for thousands of years. In 1989, a local newspaper reported on secret government studies showing extensive contamination at the site. That drew attention from unsuspecting homeowners, and a community group called the #Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition sprang up to oppose re-licensing of site facilities. Nuclear operations at Santa Susana finally halted in 1990."
A Documentary from 2021:
A group of mothers discovers that the Santa Susana Field Laboratory was the site of one of the most significant nuclear accidents in United States history and may have exposed their children and their community to cancer-causing hazardous waste.
"In 1959, an unconfined partial meltdown of a sodium reactor at the #SantaSusanaFieldLab caused such a devastating radiation leak, that many consider it to be the worst #nuclear disaster in U.S. history. Studies have shown that the radiation released at #SSFL was 260 times greater than the radiation released at Three Mile Island.
"Located just 30 miles from Downtown, #LosAngeles, the meltdown was concealed from the public eye for 20 years before being uncovered and the contamination never fully eradicated. The partial meltdown unveiled decades of negligence and unsafe handling of extremely #toxic#radioactive and #chemical materials.
"The affected community has demanded a full cleanup of the area for decades, but they’re receiving pushback from the sites #corporate and government landowners, as these juggernauts and their persuasive #lobbyists have successfully stalled any hope of a cleanup. Until Recently."