$41.5 Million EPA Investigation Finds High Levels of Radiation in California

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a 2,668-acre (1,080 ha) portion of the Southern California Simi Hills in Simi Valley, California, used mainly for the testing and development of liquid-propellant rocket engines for the United States space program from 1949 to 2006,  nuclear reactors from 1953 to 1980 and the operation of a U.S. government-sponsored liquid metals research center from 1966 to 1998. 

The site is located approximately 7 miles (11 km) northwest from the community of Canoga Park and approximately 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Sage Ranch Park is adjacent on part of the northern boundary and the community of Bell Canyon along the entire southern boundary. — Wikipedia

By Shepard Ambellas

In 2009, the Department of Energy and governmental stimulus funds brought $41.5 million dollars to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct an investigation into claims that the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and surrounding area is contaminated with radiation.

As a result of that investigation, the EPA has now deemed that the land toxic and contaminated with high levels of radiation.

Teresa Rochester writes;

The survey, which includes test results of samples of groundwater, sediment and subsurface soil in the Northern Buffer Zone and Area IV, which was once home to 10 small nuclear reactors, found about 10 percent of them exceeded background levels established by two laboratories.

Those background levels were going to be used to plot the cleanup of radiological contamination at the site, which will be overseen by California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control….

…. Radionuclides such as strontium-90, cesium-137 and tritium were found in some samples that exceeded EPA’s background limits.

EPA officials collected 3,735 soil and sediment samples and 215 groundwater and surface samples from the site. Of the 34 surface water samples collected, two instances of maximum contamination levels being exceeded, while four areas had high levels of contamination in sediment. There were nearly 300 instances of Cesium-137 in soil samples exceeding maximum levels, while 153 samples had levels of Strontium-90 that far exceeded the background level.

Local residents and nuclear watchdog activists just want to see the site cleaned as promised.

Radiation levels have recently been a major topic of concern after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster that took place in Japan causing the spread of harmful radiation throughout the atmosphere.

Still yet, as of 2012, many former nuclear testing sites like the Santa Susana Field Laboratory remain contaminated.

Diabolic individuals and governments seem to want to continue the use of nuclear technology despite major breakthroughs in clean, green, efficient energy technologies.

In fact, in most cases, nuclear power companies have suppressed clean energy technology in order to continue to line their pockets at the possible health expense of the American people.