China, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, and others are going to want to know just how out of control this newly revealed radiation emergency is at Fukushima.  youtube.com

While Michigan residents enjoy the benefits of the surrounding Great Lakes, Ontario waterfront residents ponder the idea of becoming the final resting spot for Canada’s nuclear waste, and it has local legislators and environmentalists concerned.  nuclear-news.net

Zimbabwe mining ministry says that no deal has been signed on supplying uranium for Iran’s nuclear program. Foxnews.com

Cuts to conventional armed forces risk making the UK’s nuclear deterrent ineffective, a former deputy head of the military has warned. scotsman.com

Ambient office = .079 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .109 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .102 microsieverts per hour

Banana from local grocery store =  .121 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .145 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .113 microsieverts per hour

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will investigate the finances of three nuclear reactors owned by Entergy Nuclear. rutlandherald.com

The United Kingdom’s nuclear weapons are being dismantled under its disarmament obligations. matthewaid.tumblr.com

How Cold War nuclear testing once made orbit unsafe for Apollo. arstechnica.com

A debate over the rising cost of building a first-of-its-kind nuclear plant in Georgia will be pushed far into the future. thenewstribune.com

Ambient office = .081 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .070 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .063 microsieverts per hour

Iceberg lettuce from Costco =  .138 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .104 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .088 microsieverts per hour

National Project Management Corp. brings proposal for new nuclear design to international UN representatives in Vienna. nuclearstreet.com

NuScale, the Corvallis, Oregon company that’s trying to develop smaller, modular nuclear reactors, got caught in a national crossfire last week.  nuclear-news.net

The US NRC has increased its oversight at Point Beach nuclear plant in Wisconsin. platts.com

The future of the Indian Point nuclear power plant may rest on the bottom of the Hudson River.  lohud.com

Ambient office = .116 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .087 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .98 microsieverts per hour

Romaine lettuce from Costco =  .139 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .072 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .066 microsieverts per hour

             Part 2 of 3

            In part 1, I wrote about the history of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) and the horrible environmental abuses that occurred with respect to radioactive materials. During the early days of the Laboratory operation, environmental standards had not yet been establish for radioactive materials and record keeping was minimal or non-existent. We do know that radioactive contamination was often released into the soil, water and atmosphere from the burning of wastes, as well as fires, accidents and melt-downs at experimental reactors. The year before the Laboratory was completely shut down in 2006, wildfires swept through the area, damaging buildings and releasing more radiation from plants and soil into the atmosphere.

            Boeing, which owns the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and land around it are busy demolishing buildings in preparation for converting the land into a park. The California Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC) is being accused by a number of non-profit watchdog groups of allowing Boeing to illegally tear down the buildings and cart the radioactive waste off to seven dumps in Southern California. A great deal of money has been spent trying to convince the public that the site is clean enough to be a public park and that there is no danger of serious radiation exposure for people using the park. At the end of 2012, the DTSC and Federal EPA worked to reduce public confidence in a major radiation study of the SSFL land.

           Consumer Watchdog, one of the non-profits fighting the state and Federal governments over SSFL released a report titled Golden Wasteland in February of 2013. The report provides evidence that the DTSC and its director have been victims of regulatory capture and are siding with the companies that they are suppose to regulating. They are not doing their job of monitoring and regulating serious pollution in California. They claim that DTSC is allow Boeing to dismantle the buildings on the SSFL site without providing the oversight, public input and environmental impact statements required by law. The watchdog groups are calling for a halt to the demolition of buildings where plutonium fuel was processed and where experimental reactors suffered accidents and meltdowns. These buildings were proven to contain highly radioactive contamination during an inspection in March of 2013. The debris of six contaminated buildings that have been demolished have been shipped to landfills that are not licensed to receive radioactive waste. In addition, these landfills are mined for metals that are sent to recycling plants. Some of the metals may wind up in consumer products and threaten public health. The greatest fear is that highly toxic plutonium-239 from SSFL will endanger the public.

           The DTSC and Boeing have been discussing issues of disposal and regulation but there has been little to no opportunity for public input. The same callous behavior that has been exhibited by the Navy at Seattle’s Magnuson Park and the U.S. Department of Energy at Hanford in Washington State is being shown by the DTSC. Environmental contamination and threats to public health are not being taken seriously. Illegal behavior that is convenient for Boeing is being tolerated by the State of California. These three cases are perfect illustrations of why we cannot trust Federal and state agencies to protect us from the dangers that attend the use of nuclear energy to provide electricity for our cities and industries.

Santa Susana Field Laboratory Area IV which contained nuclear reactors and laboratories:

Japan has established a new research body which it hopes will bring together international experience in the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. world-nuclear-news.org

Greater investment in nuclear regulation will pay dividends for Japan as it moves to restart nuclear reactors.  world-nuclear-news.org

A nuclear power plant in Taiwan may have been leaking radioactive water for three years. news.asiaone.co

There is a growing crisis of confidence in nuclear power in North Asia. uk.reuters.com

Ambient office = .115 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .137 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .083 microsieverts per hour

Iceberg lettuce from Costco =  .150 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .074 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .054 microsieverts per hour

     Part 1 of 3     

              I have been blogging a lot lately about problems with radioactive contamination in Seattle and at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Many other states have their own problems with contamination left over from nuclear research and processing. However, I was astonished at the casual attitude that governed the handling of nuclear materials and radioactive waste at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) near Santa Monica, California.

             The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) near Santa Monica, California was established by North American Aviation (NAA) in 1947 to test fire liquid fuel rocket engines for the U.S. space program. Virtually all the major rocket engines used in the space program were developed there. They also carried out research on nuclear reactor design and operation there between 1953 and 1980. NASA acquired some of the acreage from the US Air Force in 1973. The U.S. Department of Energy was also involved in work at SSFL.

              Atomics International (AI) was created as a division of NAA for nuclear research at SSFL in 1955 and the rocket research was made a separate division under the name of Rocketdyne. Both divisions were sold to Rockwell International in 1955. Boeing bought Rockwell International in 1967.

             AI carried out work on the first commercial nuclear power plant in Area IV of SSFL and they also worked on the first nuclear power source launched into space. A sodium reactor was constructed and operated from 1957 to 1964. It was the first commercial reactor to experience a core meltdown which was covered up by the U. S. Department of Energy (USDOE) for ten years. There were no accurate records of the disposal of the resulting radioactive materials and tons of sodium coolant disappeared. There was also a sodium burn pit where sodium contaminated objects were burned in the open air.  Twenty two of twenty seven men who worked the burn pit died of cancer. They fished in a terribly polluted pond and one of them once said that all seven wells on the site were contaminated. There were explosions at the burn pit.

              Altogether, ten nuclear reactors operated at SSFL over the years along with fuel fabrication facilities for plutonium and uranium carbide. Fuel rods from the onsite reactors as well as rods from other U.S. government run reactors were cut apart and inspected in what is known as a “hot lab.” There were fires at some of the reactors. Partial meltdowns occurred three times between 1959 and 1971 where an undisclosed amount of radioactive materials were released into the environment. Four of the ten reactors suffered damage to large percentages of their fuel rods. Because the onsite reactors were experimental, there were no containment vessels enclosing the reactor buildings. Barrels of highly radioactive waste were set out and blown full of holes with rifles. There were many other incidences of criminal negligence in the handling of radioactive waste at SSFL over the years.

            In 2005, Rocketdyne was sold to Pratt Whitney but Boeing kept the SSFL facilities. In that same year, wildfires raged thought the area and damaged some of the SSFL buildings. Large amounts of radioactive contamination were released by the fires but that release was denied by the State of California. 2006, the facility was shut down permanently.

Target Practice at SSFL: