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WOOLSEY
FIRE AND THE SANTA SUSANA FIELD LABORATORY
14
November, 2018
AERIAL
PHOTO FROM CBSLA SHOWING THE START OF THE FIRE AT SSFL.
HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/STU_MUNDEL/STATUS/1060692904107110400
We’ve
received quite a few inquiries over the past several days regarding
the potential consequences of the Woolsey
Fire in
Southern California, which has burned through part of the Santa
Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) site
in Ventura County immediately south of Simi Valley. The SSFL site,
which closed in 1996, housed ten nuclear reactors as well as rocket
engine test facilities, and is highly contaminated with radioactive
and toxic wastes remaining from decades of poor disposal practices
and numerous accidents. The public is understandably concerned about
the possibility that contaminants have been spread by the fire, which
reached the site on Fri. Nov. 8th, but was reportedly no longer
burning within it the following day.
SAFECAST
RADIATION MAP OF THE REGION AFFECTED BY THE WOOLSEY FIRE, WITH CAL
FIRE DATA OVERLAY. SSFL LOCATION INDICATED BY A RED DOT.
Safecast
had no survey data from the immediate SSFL area prior to the fire,
but we had a fair
amount of data from nearby communities which
showed it to be at normal background levels. Our realtime radiation
and particulate sensors in the Southern California region, the
closet of which is 30km (about
18 miles) away from SSFL, have shown no measurable increases in
radiation. Safecast volunteers are on the way to the site, however,
so hopefully we will have new data to share soon.
Though CalFire indicates
that the fire danger in the SSFL area has passed, many roads are
still closed, making access difficult.
SATELLITE
IMAGERY FROM JPL/ARIA. AREAS AFFECTED BY THE WOOLSEY FIRE ARE SHOWN
IN COLOR. SSFL IS LOCATED WITHIN THE AREA INDICATED BY THE GREEN
CIRCLE (ANNOTATED ADDED BY SAFECAST).
Official
agencies, including the California
Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC ) and
the LA
County Department of Public Health have
issued statements saying that they have surveyed the site and
detected no radiation above normal background levels. As of this
writing, neither agency has provided actual measurement data or
details about their methodology. One potential health concern would
be from inhalation of radioactive material lofted by the fire and
carried by the smoke plumes. Inhalation of smoke and particulate
matter itself certainly presents a health risk, and people living in
the region have been advised to protect themselves against that. As
has been demonstrated
at Chernobyl,
wildfires in radioactively contaminated areas can resuspend
radioactive material and carry it significant distances. The
Chernobyl research cited above, which analysed the effects of fires
of similar magnitude to Woolsey in a more highly contaminated region,
suggested that radiation doses to the most affected people would be
higher than background but still within the same range. These
researchers were able to make these estimates because they were able
to carefully measure the radiation that was released by the fires.
AERIAL
PHOTO OF SSFL SITE, 1985, SHOWING SITES OF ACCIDENTS AND OTHER
INCIDENTS (CREDITS: PHOTO: DOE; ANNOTATIONS: SSFL WORK GROUP)
Radioactivity
from ground contamination is relatively easy to measure, and we
should be able to answer some questions about this soon. In addition,
we will continue to look for available data that might show changes
in airborne radiation that may have been caused by this fire. This
would have to come from radiation monitors that were already in place
nearby beforehand. This is why Safecast continues to stress the
importance of having sensors in place before an incident like this
occurs. Without adequate data, important questions cannot be
answered, and there is no substitute for being prepared.
More
information:
Massive
Woolsey Fire Began On Contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory,
Close to Site of Partial Meltdown,
Physicians for Social Responsibility, LA, Nov 12, 2018
Resuspension
and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment,
Evangeliou et al, Nature
scientific Reports,
6, Article number: 26062 (2016)
SoCal
Fire May Have Ejected "Incredibly Dangerous" Radioactive
Particles Into The Atmosphere
14
November, 2018
The
95,000 acre Woolsey fire which has coated Southern California with an
apocalyptic orange glow may have released a toxic stew of
radioactive particles and toxic chemicals into the air, after
scorching the land on closed-down government weapons testing
facility in Simi Hills known to be heavily contaminated from decades
of experiments.
Commencing operation in
1947 for Rockwell's Rocketdyne Division, a government contractor for
the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the Santa Susana Field Lab
(SSFL) has a checkered safety record, to put it lightly. In addition
to several nuclear accidents - including
the worst nuclear meltdown in US history, toxic
materials have accumulated on-site from years of dumping, just miles
from thousands of residents.
It was the site of several nuclear accidents, including the worst nuclear meltdown in US history when, in 1959, facility operators intentionally vented nuclear material from the site’s “Sodium Reactor Experiment” to prevent it from overheating and exploding. By the time the leaks were closed, the site had released 459 times more radiation than was leaked during the better-known 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island.
The lab property, now owned by airplane manufacturer Boeing, stretches for 2,800 acres in the Simi Hills, and remains contaminated with toxic materials. Thousands of people live within two miles of the site, and roughly half a million live within 10 miles, according to an investigation by NBC 4 Los Angeles. -Quartz
California officials with
the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control said that as of
Friday, November 9, an area of the SSFL site which was scorched by
the Woolsey fire posed
no danger,
stating "Our scientists and toxicologists have reviewed
information about the fire’s location and do not believe the fire
has caused any releases of hazardous materials that would pose a risk
to people exposed to the smoke."
A
group of concerned physicians begs to differ.
According to Robert Dodge
- a physician and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Los Angeles, highly
toxic materials embedded in SSFL's soil and vegetation may have been
spewed into the air by the Woolsey fire.
"We know what
substances are on the site and how hazardous they are. We’re
talking about incredibly dangerous radionuclides and toxic chemicals
such a trichloroethylene, perchlorate, dioxins and heavy metals,"
said Dodge, adding:
"These
toxic materials are in SSFL’s soil and vegetation, and when it
burns and becomes airborne in smoke and ash, there is real
possibility of heightened exposure for area residents."
Weighing in with satellite imagery tells a similarly two-sided story. These images show that the fires did spread to the compound, but they didn’t take down structures. With near-infrared imagery, dense vegetation appears red while burn scars from the Woolsey fire contrast as dark brown.
Dodge's
group has also criticized the California Department of Toxic
Substances Control - pointing out that the state-run agency is
currently under a state-mandated independent
review to investigate
its handling of
toxic cleanups.
According to a Draft
environmental statement from
the Energy department, Santa
Susana Field Laboratory and its adjoining Northern Buffer Zone has
never been fully cleaned up.
A
1998 article of Los Angeles Magazine details horrific cancers and
other conditions which have afflicted those living near, and working
at the site.
"Children growing up near the site swam and fished in streams and played in the dry wash. And one day, Garner rode his red J.C. Higgins bike he got for Christmas through effluent flowing from the lab.
Garner, now 44, lives in Simi Valley. An ironworker, he's done contract jobs at the lab over the years. In October 1996, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. His wife Leslie had her uterus removed because of cervical cancers. His father - like Garner an ironworker employed occasionally at the lab - has skin cancer and heart problems and is near death. His sister Vickie, 46, has heart and thyroid problems. On one side of a single block of Ramara Avenue in Woodland Hills, five miles from the plant, cancer has been diagnosed in 9 out of 10 houses." -Los Angeles Magazine
Meanwhile,
here's where the potentially toxic plume of smoke traveled as of
November 9:
Here is a look at the Woolsey Fire in California as seen from the GOES-16 Weather Satellite this afternoon. #WoolseyFire #cawx
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