Sixty Years After a Nuclear Core Meltdown, Half a Million Residents Are Still At Risk
In California, the hills are alive, but not with the
sound of music. On Thursday, November 8, 2018, a small fire started
near the top of Woolsey Canyon Road,
in the Simi Hills. The location was on the grounds of the Santa Susana
Field Laboratory (SSFL). Both famous and infamous, the facility once
owned by the Rocketdyne Corporation, was used for development and
testing of liquid fueled rocket motors from 1949 to 2006.
The
Atomics International division of North American Aviation once used a
separate and dedicated portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to
build and operate the first commercial nuclear power plant in the
United States. The Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) was an experimental
nuclear reactor that operated at the site from 1957 to 1964. It was the
first commercial power plant in the world to experience a core meltdown.
The reactors located on the grounds of SSFL had no containment
structures. During a series of events, thousands of pounds of
radioactive nucleotides dispersed into the ground and air.
In 1996, The Boeing Company became the primary owner and operator of the
Santa Susana Field Laboratory, which it later closed. Today, more than
150,000 people live within 5 miles (8 km) of the facility, and at
least half a million people live within 10 miles (16 km). As of 2018,
the Boeing remains as 
the
site owner, with NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) liable for
several parcels within the larger facility. On August 2, 2005, Pratt
& Whitney purchased Boeing's Rocketdyne division, but declined to
acquire SSFL as part of the sale.
In 2005, wildfires swept through northern Los Angeles County and parts
of Ventura County. The fires consumed most of the dry brush throughout
the Simi Hills where the SSFL is located. Since that fire, allegations
have emerged that vast quantities of on-site nuclear and chemical
contamination vaporized into the air. More recently, Los Angeles County
firefighters assigned to SSFL during that fire received medical
testing to see if they ingested or inhaled any harmful doses while
protecting the facility.
The small fire that broke out at the SSFL in the afternoon of November 8, 2018 was sadly reminiscent of the 1959 meltdown
and the 2005 wildfire. Ground crews from Los Angeles City and County
raced up the long and winding Woolsey Canyon. Upon arrival, they found a
scorched and inoperable Southern California Edison
(SCE) electrical transformer near the point of origin. The resulting
brushfire had raced off the property to the south and west. The Alpha, Bravo and possibly the Coca rocket test stands received substantial damage during the recent Woolsey Fire.
On the first afternoon of the fire, the ridges of the Simi Hills,
including areas near the former nuclear reactor sites were fully
involved in flames. The Los Angeles County Fire Department dispatched
its two “Super Scooper”
firefighting airplanes. After dropping their 1,600 gallons of water,
the pair of “flying boat amphibious aircraft” headed for Castaic Lake,
near Santa Clarita. There, at airspeeds approaching 100 mph, each plane
took only twelve seconds to scoop up a new load of water and 
return
to the fire scene. At least six times, before darkness curtailed their
activities, the two airplanes attempted to douse the spreading
wildfire. With Santa Ana Winds gusting to 70 mph, it was a valiant, yet
futile endeavor.
By Friday, November 10, 2018, the flames had swept through portions of
Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Bell Canyon. most
of that territory was downwind of the SSFL. By nightfall on that second
night, the flames had reached Malibou Lake and the City of Malibu.
Only the Pacific Ocean stopped the further spread of flames.
Over the next few days, the unexplained small fire at SSFL had grown to
almost 100,000 acres and burned almost 500 homes. At 98,000 acres and
still climbing, the Woolsey Fire had consumed well over eighty percent
of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area. On two separate parcels of private property near Agoura Hills, three lives were lost during the fire. From our vantage 
point,
on the north side of Simi Valley, we observed two nights of active
flames. On the third day, we could still see wispy smoke emanating from
near the fire’s point of origin. With Santa Ana winds still gusting to
60 mph, the smoke plume traveled south and east, away from our home.
On Sunday, November 11, 2018, we watched on local television as a DC-10 air tanker
and numerous helicopters dropped water and fire retardant on the
slopes above Malibu Canyon. Since spot fires can occur up to half a
mile from active flames, we had stationed our travel trailer at our
home in Simi Valley. Although there had been no active fire near our
storage yard in Simi Valley, if one coach were to catch fire at that
yard, hundreds of recreational vehicles could have burned.
As
of that afternoon, hundreds of thousands of residents downwind of the
SSFL remained evacuated or had returned to scenes of destruction and
despair. Other than some mental stress watching fires spread live on
TV, we remained safe at home. Our hearts go out to those who lost
friends, pets, homes and property. Although not every home that burned
was a mansion or a faux Tuscan villa and vineyard, a mobile home in a
canyon setting can be just as dear. Many of the lower priced dwellings
had no fire insurance.
To an eyewitness, it is disconcerting to see how quickly everything you
own could go up in flames. As humans, we are at the mercy of wind,
weather and nature. Some politicians and some who lost homes blamed
land managers or first responders for the scope of destruction. Others
recognized that there is risk associated with living adjacent to
wildlands. With high winds and embers aloft, there was no way to
protect every home. First responders had to change priorities, electing
to save as many lives as possible.
In Butte County, near Chico, California, almost the entire town of Paradise
recently disappeared from the map. Prior to outbreak of the “Camp
Fire”, around 27,000 people lived in that area. Almost nothing of the
built environment in Paradise or nearby Concow withstood the flames.
Over 10,000 structures burned, including homes, schools and the entire
downtown district. Scores of people died in their homes, or while
trying to escape on foot or in vehicles. As of this writing, nearly one
thousand people remain missing.
The scope of these tragedies is hard to comprehend. Where will 27,000
homeless people go? Over twenty-five percent of those displaced were
senior citizens, living on fixed or minimal incomes. With cold and
rainy weather expected soon, a tent encampment in a Chico, California
Walmart parking lot will not provide sufficient shelter. Here in
Ventura County, less than one year ago, we lost almost 1000 homes to
the Thomas Fire. In late 2017, an 
additional
2,900 homes burned in Santa Rosa, California. As a result, tens of
thousands of California residents are now actively seeking shelter.
Over the past ten years, Carrie McCoy
and I have visited Malibu many times. One of our favorite restaurants
overlooks Zuma Beach and Point Dume. During the Woolsey Fire, many homes
near that seaside restaurant burned to the ground. While returning
from our various trips to Malibu, we would often traverse Decker
Canyon, Encinal Canyon, Mulholland Highway and Kanan Road. Those
interconnected roadways snake through myriad canyons and rise over
windswept ridgetops. Amidst the huge swaths of chaparral, are homes
both lowly and grand. Many of those dwellings now consist of little
more than a roadside gate or a mailbox. Our next visit to Malibu will
likely include views of destruction not seen for decades, if ever
before.
In 1980, I lived in Agoura Hills,
near the intersection of Kanan Road and U.S. Highway 101. One
afternoon, from my hilltop home, I saw a fire ignite on the south side
of the freeway. Within minutes, it swept westward along Kanan Road. By
nightfall, it reached the same stretches of Malibu that burned again in
the Woolsey Fire. That day, almost forty years ago, I learned
firsthand that it is not safe to live anywhere in the windswept canyons
of the Santa Monica Mountains.
By the early 1990s, the Kanan/Malibu fire had faded into distant memory.
The allure of living large, with nature all around was too great. What
followed was a population boom in the canyons of the Santa Monica
Mountain. When the Woolsey Fire struck, most of those residents had
never seen active fire in their area. Living in the Santa Monica
Mountains is a speculative investment. If one can afford to take the
risk to both property and personal safety, then building 
or
buying there should be a personal choice. Since no property in that
area is immune to destructive wildfires, self-insurance and private
fire protection should be the rule, not the exception.
Returning to the origins of this most recent and destructive wildfire,
the SSFL is now an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) superfund site. To this day, Boeing Company, NASA and the DOE
administrate various parts of the property. Although there has been
some minor cleanup, there has never been a complete remediation of the
nuclear and chemical contamination caused during the second half of the
twentieth century. With "scorching" of the remaining rocket test
stands in the Woolsey Fire, it remains to be seen if any of that
infrastructure is salvageable.
The public never heard a definitive answer regarding the firefighters'
exposed to possible contamination during the 2005 wildfire at SSFL.
After the Woolsey Fire, the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) claimed, “There was no discernible radiation in the tested area.” As one of the 500,000 
people who reside within ten miles of the radiological and chemical nightmare known
as the SSFL, I believe that everyone in the area has the right to know
exactly what our environmental exposure was and continues to be.
After the Woolsey Fire, Los Angeles County banned the removal of any
fire rubble until completion of toxicity surveys of each affected
property. Neither Ventura County nor Los Angeles County has plans to
test beyond the SSFL for possible radioactive contamination. It is time
for the public and our elected officials to demand nothing less than
full testing, cleanup and remediation of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
By James McGillis at 03:07 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link
