Santa Susana Field Laboratory Updates


A vehicle leaves Santa Susana Field Lab on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in the region where decades of rocket testing and a partial nuclear meltdown left toxins in the soil and groundwater, according to state officials. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

 

U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry visits the Santa Susana Field Lab

By Olga Grigoryants | ogrigoryants@scng.com | Los Angeles Daily News
PUBLISHED: September 6, 2019 at 7:12 pm | UPDATED: September 6, 2019 at 7:20 pm

U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry visited the site of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory Friday, surveying the old rocket engine testing site nested in the hills above the San Fernando and Simi valleys.

The Department of Energy signed a ‘Consent Order for Corrective Action’ to address the contamination and three years later it inked another agreement an ‘Administrative Orders on Consent’ requiring a full cleanup be completed by 2017. The cleanup has not started yet.

The area was used to test rocket engines and conduct nuclear research during the Cold War. Currently, Boeing owns a majority of the land. In 1989, the Department of Energy released a report admitting that a partial meltdown of a sodium reactor had occurred in 1959 in Area IV, which the DOE still oversees.  READ MORE

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July 2019:  REMEDIATION AND RESTORATION:

Visit Boeing Website for Details

January 2019:  Boeing Santa Susana Field Laboratory Woolsey Fire Radiological Sampling Report

Neighbors –

We’ve received a number of questions about radiological sampling results from Boeing’s air monitoring stations during and after the Woolsey Fire.  Recently, we submitted our report to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and also posted a copy on www.boeing.com/santasusana:

Did the 2018 Woolsey Fire have any effect on air quality beyond typical smoke associated with fires of this nature, specifically in releasing any radioactive material into the atmosphere?

No. Data collected from Boeing air monitoring stations during the Woolsey Fire confirm that no man-made radionuclides were detected. The data, evaluated by an independent, State-certified laboratory, were consistent with any forest or brush fire where increased airborne particulate matter from smoke and fire is present. Only naturally-occurring radioactive material (NORM) was detected in the samples collected. The levels of NORM were well below regulatory standards for airborne radionuclides and well below general background levels in the United States, which are considered safe by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). See “Boeing’s Radiological Air Monitoring Data Associated with the Woolsey Fire” here.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

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Kamara Noelle Sams
Environmental Community Relations
The Boeing Company
818.466.8793
kamara.sams@boeing.com