Los Angeles Nuclear Meltdown Anniversary
At approximately 6:30 PM on the night of July 13, 1959, engineers working at an experimental reactor in the Santa Susana hills confronted their worst nightmare: an out of control reactor. It's called "an excursion," in Orwellian nukespeak but in fact it was the start of a partial meltdown that would take over a month to control and has taken over 50 years to clean up at a cost of over $250-million and will take another 50,000 years to clear the released contamination from the groundwater.
It was fifty years ago today, that the city of Los Angeles experienced the meltdown at the Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) that, except for blind luck, didn't become LA's Chernobyl. Unlike Chernobyl or Three Mile Island this research reactor didn't have a protective containment structure and a breach could have, "released more radiation than was released at Three Mile Island," said Dan Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap.
Still, according to Hirsch, the meltdown released enough radioactive isotopes to cause over a thousand cancers. While the SRE melting may have fallen short of other large scale catastrophes the nuclear industry didn't want the public to know about what happened in LA's backyard.
Hirsch has led the charge to bring this reactor accident to light and force a succession of corporate owners of the site, and the government, to clean up the contaminated mountaintop facility. Nothing happened until he and a group of UCLA students (of which I was a part) uncovered government and corporate documents and films that revealed what had happened. The incident had been covered up for over twenty years, hidden from, the general public, local emergency responders, residents whose homes backed up to the site, children who played in the creek that transported radioactive isotopes down the hill and even the workers charged with cleaning up the highly radioactive mess who were never told about the dangers of their jobs.
"They took our (radiation) badges and locked them in the safe," said John Pace who as a twenty-something new hire at the Atomics International site was pressed into service to help clean up the radiation contaminated reactor building starting the day after the meltdown began. Pace explained that when the badges showed the "radiation went off the scales," the managers took away their badges because they'd have to send the workers home if they were exposed to that much radiation. "We wouldn't have enough workers," he said.
Pace and his fellow cleanup crew members weren't issued any protective clothing or gear. "We wore regular cotton coveralls, nothing special," said Pace. Their first job was to seal the control room's windows and doorjambs with tape so the engineers would be safe. The workers were sent into the room with the reactor and started to scrub the floor and walls. They soon found this approach was too expensive because "the brooms, sponges and mops got contaminated quickly and had to be thrown away." Their solution, "we decided to use Kotex, sanitary napkins to scrub the floors and the walls," which were disposable.
While the crew scrubbed, the engineers and executives huddled -- trying to figure out what to do now that the unthinkable had happened. Pace knew it was serious because "we never saw those guys -- wearing suits and ties," in the reactor building.
The suits' bright idea was to start up the reactor again and then see what happened when they tried to shut it down. Pace said they did this repeatedly for about a month during which time more radiation was released, especially when one of the workers operating a small crane "panicked, hit the wrong button and dropped" one of the highly contaminated control rods. This work also contaminated many of the records of the accident which had to be destroyed.
Over a month after the accident, the company finally issued a cryptic press release embargoed until Saturday morning, August 29. Issuing a release for the weekend is considered a good way to bury any item you don't want anyone to write about because most newspapers are thinly staffed on the weekends. Something that stated "a parted fuel element was observed," and claimed this was not "an indication of unsafe reactor conditions," was destined to be buried in a pile of other more pressing news such as the lightening storms that killed nine people on the East coast that day.
Their strategy worked and few people outside of the nuclear brotherhood knew about the accident until I stumbled on some literature that mentioned the accident, while visiting the Bridge the Gap offices, twenty years later in 1979. A brief mention from a nuclear engineer, who was horrified by the hazard-strewn, secret past of the nuclear industry, had been printed in a newsletter from an anti-nuclear group. I was searching for topics for the first film I had to make while studying at the UCLA Film School. I'd decided, in the aftermath of Three Mile Island that looking at nuclear facilities in Los Angeles was, no pun intended, a hot topic.
I made a copy of the newsletter and contacted the engineer who confirmed that there had been a meltdown. Repeated attempts to pry documents or information out of Atomics International proved fruitless but I discovered that official reports had to be sent to regional Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Depository libraries and the UCLA Engineering library was a depository.
After convincing the librarian to find someone to fix the aging microcard reader (a precursor to microfiche) I was able to surf a seemingly unlimited number of documents and reports about "operational accidents and radiation exposure experience" in the nuclear industry. Armed with a bag of nickels to feed the copying machine I slogged through what I thought were the most promising.
It became clear that benign sounding words like "excursion" or "incident" were code for troubling, dangerous and sometimes deadly accidents. The SRE's was not the only "excursion" in fact there had been 26 in the years between 1946 and 1970 "when the power level of fissile systems became uncontrollable because of unplanned or unexpected changes in the system reactivity," according to one AEC report I found. I was dumbstruck. Before the SRE, I'd thought Three Mile Island was the only nuclear accident.
We'd also been told by the nuclear industry and the government that, "radiation from nuclear plants has not caused any known deaths among the public." Which most assumed meant no one had died due to a nuclear power accident. In fact, during this time six deaths of nuclear workers (not the general public) were, "attributable to nuclear causes." Three of those deaths occurred when the SL-1 reactor at the Idaho Falls research facility had an "excursion" that killed two members of the crew "instantly" and a third man died hours later due to head injuries. One of the workers was speared by a exploding fuel rod and sent flying to the ceiling where he remained impaled until the rescue crew figured out how to get him down without killing anyone else from radiation exposure. All three were buried in lead-lined coffins.
I also found that the SRE was one of three similar reactors that were being tested around the country. The other two, one in Piqua, Ohio and one in Hallam, Nebraska were also shut down after experiencing fuel melting. Both of these reactor complexes were entombed in giant concrete structures where they will have to be guarded for years.
I shared my findings with Hirsch who began to plan for their release, which led to a nuclear power educational effort that continues today.
Speaking at a press conference this morning commemorating the anniversary of the SRE meltdown, Hirsch shared his concern about whether we've learned anything from the past before we rush into a nuclear revival. "It's a powerful lesson of how things can go wrong with technology," said Hirsch.
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Someone gave me this information today.
"I just spoke with Denise Brach, the Ombudsman for the SSFL. She is the person to call to receive a personal tracking number. Each individual who lived near or worked at the SSFL and became sick are entitled to file a claim.
Denise Brach 1-888-272-7430 to file a claim
DoE 1-866-534-0599 to schedule an interview (by telephone)
I think the DoE should appoint the National Institute Of Saftey and Health - Disease Registry to keep track of "ALL" affected people."
I just thought I would add a comment to visit this link that talks about the health issues that have affected the families that lived in Simi and San Fernando Valleys as result of the "incident" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rocketdynemeltdown. If the link doesn't work just paste to your browser. I was one of those kids that lived in Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley just below Rocketdyne. I was eight when we moved there in 1959, so I didn't work on the hill. My thyroid was removed last year after serveral years of watching my toxic nodules. The doctor also asked me if I was exposed to radiation when they discovered the nodules. Of course I didn't know then. It was finally decided to remove the Thyroid before I had a life threatening Thyroid Storm. Why wait for cancer? My Mother died of oral cancer at the age of 57. She didn't work on the hill either. So I guess we are just two people in the family that didn't work on hill and didn't get ill because of radiation exposure.
I am just learning about this today, July 20th, four days before my 41st birthday and a little over a year after having my thyroid and lymph nodes removed because of thyroid cancer. I moved to Thousand Oaks June of 1972 and lived on the boarder of Thousand Oak/ Simi Valley. Our exit off the 23 freeway was where it ended. In 1972, nothing was there, just our houses and open space.
I lived there until 1987 at which time I moved to Northridge for about 3 years.
I have always been very healthy. No cancer in my family. No history of thyroid disease in my family.
But, I have thyroid cancer. How? The doctors all asked me if I was exposed to radiation, I said no. Wow, was I wrong!!!! It looks like I was exposed, my little 3 year old body was exposed and for many years. The years when my thyroid was easily hurt by this exposure. I have a large scar on my neck, my parotid glands are all blocked so I can't eat anything dry as I don't salivate. This will bring on lifelong dental problems. I have to take medication everyday for the rest of my life. My body temperature is always off . I have night sweats every single night. I am tired even after 8-10 hours of sleep. My life will never be the same.
What can those of us who have cancer because of this exposure to radiation can do?
I always am fair to opinions of if there was or was not a meltdown.
Yet, when Chris Rowe – Board Member of the West Hills Neighborhood Council says “There are no employees that suffered and died from radiation sickness”
That is not true at all. I opened with Christina Walsh the Aerospace CANCER Museum of Education.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let’s not deny the health impacts on the workers who died for our Country and the innocent casualties of the surrounding communities.
Take care
William Preston Bowling
Founder/Director
Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education
23350 Lake Manor Drive
Chatsworth, California 91311
http://www.ACMEla.org
ACME the Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education, Los Angeles Chapter. ACME - Educating the Public of Neighboring Aerospace Industry Toxins through the Arts. ACME – Aerospace Cancer Museum of Educationis in affiliation with International Humanities Center, a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501c(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is people like YOU that keep these websites inoperation. Your donations are greatly appreciated.
Other links of interest on this subject…
http://www.CleanUpRocketdyne.org
http://www.SSFLPanel.org
http://www.RocketdyneArchives.com
http://www.RocketdyneWatch.org
http://www.StopRunkleDyne.com
http://www.The-Aero-Space.org
http://www.H2ohno.com
http://www.PSRLA.org
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Thank you for posting the links and for the work you and Chris do.
On November 12, 1957, Moorpark became the first small town in the entire world to to be completely powered by nuclear energy from this experimental nuclear reactor. For one hour on November 12, 1957 this fact was featured on Edwin. R Murrow's "See it Now" television show. The reactor, called the Sodium Reactor Experiment was built by the Atomics International division of North American Aviation at the nearby Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The utility trumpeted this accomplishment as the launching of the “Age of Atomic Energy,” when electricity would literally “be too cheap to meter.” On July 26, 1959, the Santa Susana minireactor suffered a partial core meltdown, releasing radioactivity and requiring closure in February 1964. Taken from http://www.ucpress.edu/books/chapters/10852.ch01.pdf. This is copywrited material.
Moorpark was not a city in the 1950's. Moorpark was and still is a largely hispanic community that supported agriculture in the surrounding Conejo Valley area. The population of unincoporated Simi Valley in the early 1960's was less than 30,000 so Moorpark couldn't have been more than 10,000. Moorpark was an experimental area because of it's small population, remoteness and high probability that any "problems" with the experiment would go unnoticed or ignored by it's population. AI and later Rocketdyne didn't know what long term effects the accident would have on Simi Valley which at that time was also a remote area with a small population made up mostly of people in the agriculture industry.
Maybe they didn't know then. What about now? Why is there still denial when we know better. Isn't it time to forget about blame and start thinking about responsibility? How about responsibility to the next generation of people living closer and closer to the site. Do they "deserve it" if they get sick as a result? I had a worker come up to me at the last EPA meeting and inform me that only the stupid workers got sick, as he proudly declared his high intelligence as the he was the accountant at the SRE. Can you imagine saying that some of the workers deserved it? the ones actually handling the stuff? but that was their job! and what about the neighbors that didn't know what was going on? When we look at the half-life of plutonium, can we really stand here and argue about how it was in a remote area 50 years ago? Strontium and Cesium have half-lives around 30 years or so, but it will take 200 years for it to be gone. Those are fission products, not found in nature. So what if it was remote fifty years ago when we are dealing with stuff that will remain in the environment for centuries, and in many cases, thousands and millions of years. NOW THEY KNOW, so how about doing the right thing NOW?
ECOMOM or Chris Rowe, it is sad that you continue with these efforts to deny the past. No one ever got sick? What do you think the Waco family thinks of that when he died six days after a radioactive "pig" exploded in his face. Your denials are offensive to the many dead and suffering from Cancer and other diseases. I have met them and so have you, which makes it so astonishing that you would continue with this charade. They come to the meetings and they come to the EPA meetings to tell of their experiences. They come to ACME, the Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education (acmela.org) where they learn more, and get connected to others to help find answers. Your efforts to deny the truth is harmful to the goals of clean-up as well, but now, we have SB990 and we are seeing it through.
I have before me the "final" decision of FONSI dated March 2003 where they were walking away leaving 99% behind. We are all thankful that you weren't around back then to cause the damage that you cause now. Just remember, we are NOT going away no matter what you continue to do to us. Go ahead and yell from the highest mountain, it doesn't matter, because the truth is out, and it is not going away, not EVER.
As my sister Trudi Ferguson posted about us living right next to the SSFL facility, we were totally unaware to the horrible disaster that has become known of as one of the largest releases of Radiation & Perchlorates.
Never mind all the other facilities that are in these United States.
The only time I (age 13) even thought about this facility, was when they tested the Rockets & all the surrounding Counties could hear the ominous rumble.
Myself & my sister are the only ones left out of a once strong & able family of six.
We have endured a nightmare of various diseases & maladies, as well as our friends & family, old & new..
How they could do this to the public & employees is unbelievable.
One of my oldest friends, whose Mother & Father worked at Rocketdyne, had no idea that they even had Nuclear Reactors @ this facility. Never mind the accidents of Radiation & release of perchlorates, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
There are not enough words to even remotely relate to the horror I feel.
There is not a day that goes by now that this isn't in my thoughts or dreams.
Just thought I'd mention, my sister talks about the parents of her oldest friend,
we all lived on Nita Avenue in Canoga Park starting 1964. My sister's friend's
Father died an early death from what? BRAIN CANCER!
Visit http://acmela.org/ for more information.
It hasn't been 50 years since my 2 brother's died, 3 months apart from, one
of Melanoma Nov 2005, age 56, the other cardiovascular, Feb 2006 age 59.
My family lived basically next door to this site. My Father died 1989, Cancer
of the Larynx and non hodgkins Lymphoma. We drank, bathed, cooked with
Well water. It is not just my family, it is many families all have written to me
emailed me, thyroid cancers, thyroid problems, kidney cancers, hodgkins
disease, pancreatic cancer, liver failures, colon cancers, breast cancers,
Colon Cancers, Lung Cancers, oral cancers and on and on. Yes nuclear
technology and safety practices have come a long way in 50 years,
unfortunately the mess from the last accident is still KILLING PEOPLE today!
Nuclear technology and safety practices have come a long way in 50 years. The French use it for more than 85% of their electricity needs - perhaps they are smarter than us?
The problem is this, martinfrosa: If a friend lies to you over and over, do you continue the friendship? If a partner lies to you over and over do you continue the partnership? If a business owner lies to you over and over, do you continue doing business with that person?
If the nuclear industry lies to you over and over, do you want nuclear power? I don't care if "Nuclear technology and safety practices have come a long way in 50 years." I consider that a lie, based upon the many lies I have learned about within this industry and that continue to proliferate. I have nothing else to go on to prove otherwise, especially when taxpayers are face with cleanups at Rocky Flats, Uravan, Colorado, Paducah, Kentucky, Yucca Mountain, Navajo land and many, many more nuclear facilities, uranium mining and milling areas and storage facilities. Mistakes in this industry are horrific, and the lies have made them worse. There's no way to remedy history - what's been done has been done. The point is to make history visible so other innocent people aren't hurt by continuing lies.
Read more about the French and their nuclear power industry before you make claims that they're 'smarter than us.' Perhaps "smart" means learning more before making the big jump to trust someone a business that is proficient at lying.
Interesting that the SRE event is not mentioned in "A Review of Criticality Accidents" authored by Los Alamos National Laboratory (last revised in 1999 and published in 2000) as a report to U.S. Congress ( http://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf ).
//Paul K. Sholar (Twitter: @bkwdgreencomet)
It is interesting. But it does not mean that it did not happen. Equally as interesting, the Department of Labor continues to refer to SSFL as "a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility," which it wasn't. Perhaps the neglect to mention SRE had something to do with it being a smaller site by many standards, its unique purpose and characteristics, or its experimental nature. Who knows. More knowledge and awareness is necessary about SSFL, that is for certain.
TheAeroSpace.org
Court documents (obviously Chris Rowe) must have missed these,
These documents refer to the RMHF at the SSFL.
What this stands for is:
Radiological Material Handling Facility at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory!
Isn't it the "700 documents" that list the disposal of radiological material and
chemicals at this site? Dates like 1961 through 1969.? Tens of Thousands
of barrels or gallons or pounds of you name it (not exactly good for human consumption).
Disposal, now lets explore this! Sodium Burn Pits?
This series on EcoHearth gives an objective overview on where nuclear power stands as an alternative to burning coal and other fossil fuels. Personally, one soda can per person of nuclear waste sounds like too much to me, given that one plutonium particle lodged in your lung could kill you.
http://www.ecohearth.com/eco-zine/green-issues/391-meltdown-or-mother-lode-the-new-truth-about-nuclear-power.html
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