By Nukewatch Staff
The U.S. Department of Energy proposed new guidelines for its plan to clean up contaminated soil at the Santa Susana Field Lab, in California, poisoned by weapons testing and the partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1959. The site, in Simi Valley, is about 30 miles from Los Angeles and was home to early, experimental nuclear reactors. The area is managed by Boeing, the DOE, and NASA. Boeing will produce a plan for soil cleanup to be publicly reviewed this summer. All three have been accused of using faulty science to push for shoddy cleanup requirements.
Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility — Los Angeles Chapter, and the Committee to Bridge the Gap are among the environmental advocacy groups denouncing the DOE’s new guidelines. The groups point out that for the roughly 700,000 people who live within 10 miles of the DOE site, lower standards for cleanup create long-lived risks. For more information on the DOE plan, public comments, or scoping meetings, go online to www.ssflareaiveis.com/seis.
— The Acorn, Jan. 24, 2025; Calif. Dept. of Toxic Substances Control
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