Joel Grover and Matthew Glasser (NBCLosAngeles.com); Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly
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| Homer's "The Scream" is real. |
Atomic fallout, nuclear disaster over Los Angeles, California! A toxic cover-up has thousands asking why they're sick with cancer and other ailments. The NBC4 I-Team finally exposes the truth about a major government LIE! Joel Grover reports for
the NBC4 News at 11:00 pm with breaking news released on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015 (published at nbclosangeles.com Tuesday,
Sept. 22, 2015).
LA's Nuclear Secret: Part 1
Tucked away in the hills above the
San Fernando and Simi valleys was a 2,800-acre laboratory with a mission
that was a mystery to the thousands of people who lived in its shadow.
The story
(NBC LA) The U.S. government secretly allowed
radiation from a damaged reactor to be released into air over Los Angeles' San
Fernando and Simi valleys in the wake of a major nuclear meltdown in
Southern California more than 50 years ago -- fallout that nearby
residents contend continues to cause serious health consequences [higher cancer rates] and, in
some cases, death.- LA's Nuclear Secret: Timelines, Documents, FAQ
 |
| What's nuclear radiation ever done to anyone? Mutant flowers growing next to the Fukushima-Daiichi atomic plant disaster in coastal Japan, which followed earthquake and tsunami (san_kaido/twitter). |
Those
are the findings of a yearlong NBC4 I-Team investigation into "Area
Four," which is part of the once-secret Santa Susana Field Lab. Founded
in 1947 to test experimental nuclear reactors and rocket systems, the
research facility was built in the hills above the two valleys. In 1959,
Area Four was the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in U.S.
history. But the federal government still hasn't told the public that
radiation was released into the atmosphere as a result of the partial
nuclear meltdown.
Now,
whistleblowers interviewed on camera by NBC4 have recounted how during
and after that accident they were ordered to release dangerous
radioactive gases into the air above Los Angeles and Ventura counties,
often under cover of night, and how their bosses swore them to secrecy.
In
addition, the I-Team reviewed over 15,000 pages of studies and
government documents, and interviewed other insiders, uncovering that
for years starting in 1959, workers at Area Four were routinely
instructed to release radioactive materials into the air above
neighboring communities, through the exhaust stacks of nuclear reactors,
open doors, and by burning radioactive waste.
How It Began
On
July 13, 1959, the day of the meltdown, John Pace was working as a
reactor operator for Atomics International at Area Four's largest
reactor, under the watch of the U.S. government's Atomic Energy
Commission.
"Nobody knows the truth of what actually happened," Pace told the I-Team.
In fact, Pace said, the meltdown was verging on a major radioactive explosion.
"The radiation in that building got so high, it went clear off the scale," he said.
To
prevent a potentially devastating explosion, one that in hindsight the
76-year-old Pace believes would have been "just like Chernobyl," he and
other workers were instructed to open the exhaust stacks and release
massive amounts of radiation into the sky.
"This
was very dangerous radioactive material," he said. "It went straight
out into the atmosphere and went straight to Simi Valley, to Chatsworth,
to Canoga Park."
Pace
and his co-workers frantically tried to repair the damaged reactor.
Instead, he said they realized, their efforts were only generating more
radioactive gas. So for weeks, often in the dark of night, Pace and
other workers were ordered to open the large door in the reactor
building and vent the radiation into the air.
"It was getting out towards the public," he said. "The public would be bombarded by it."
Pace said he and his co-workers knew they were venting dangerous radiation over populated areas, but they were following orders.
"They felt terrible that it had to be done," he said. "They had to let it out over their own families."
Area Four workers "were sworn to secrecy that they would not tell anyone what they had done," Pace explained.
He remembered his boss getting right in his face and saying, "You will not say a word. Not one word."
That
was more than five decades ago, but radioactive contamination didn't
just vanish. It remains in the soil and water of Area Four and in some
areas off-site, according to state and federal records obtained by the
I-Team. And, evidence suggests that the fallout could be linked to
illnesses, including cancer, among residents living nearby.
Arline
Mathews lived with her family in Chatsworth, downwind of Area Four
during some of the radiation releases. Her middle son, Bobby, was a
champion runner on the Chatsworth High School track team for three
years, running to the Santa Susana Field Lab and back to school every
day. Bobby died of glioblastoma, a rare brain cancer often linked to
radiation exposure. Mathews said there is no known family history of
cancer and she blames the radiation from Area Four for her son's
illness.
"He
was exposed to the chemical hazardous waste and radioactivity up
there," Mathews said. "There's no getting over the loss of son."
The Government Cover-up
Six
weeks after the meltdown, the Atomic Energy Commission issued a press
release saying that there had been a minor "fuel element failure" at
Area Four's largest reactor in July. But they said there had been "no
release of radioactive materials" to the environment.
"What
they had written in that report is not even close to what actually
happened," Pace said. "To see our government talk that way and lie about
those things that happened, it was very disappointing."
In
1979, NBC4 first broke the story that there was a partial meltdown at
Area Four's largest reactor, called the Sodium Reactor Experiment. But
at the time, the U.S. government was still saying no radiation was
released into the air over LA.
But
during its current yearlong investigation, the I-Team found a NASA
report that confirmed "the 1959 meltdown... led to a release of
radioactive contaminants."
For years, NASA used part of the site for rocket testing and research.
More Radioactive Releases
In
the early 60s, Parks said, he often witnessed workers releasing
radiation into the sky through the exhaust stacks of at least three of
Area Four's ten nuclear reactors.
"They would vent it to the atmosphere," he said. "The release was done with the flick of a switch."
Radioactive Waste Up in Smoke
Parks
said he often witnessed workers releasing radioactive smoke into the
air when they disposed of barrels of radioactive waste from Area Four's
10 nuclear reactors.
"We were all workers," he said. "Just taking orders."
Workers
would often take those barrels of waste to a pond called "the burn
pits" and proceed to shoot the barrels with a high-powered rifle causing
an explosion. The radioactive smoke would drift into the air over
nearby suburbs and toward a summer camp for children.
"It was a volatile explosion, beyond belief," Parks said.
Whatever direction the wind was blowing, the radioactive smoke would travel that way.
"If the wind was blowing to the Valley, it would blow it in the Valley," he said.
Ralph Powell, who worked as a security officer at Area Four in the mid-60s, recalled being blanketed by that radioactive smoke.
"I saw clouds of smoke that was engulfing my friends, that are dying now," Powell said.
Powell
believes it wasn't just his friends who suffered the consequences. He
fears he may have exposed his own family to radiation, tracking it home
on his clothes and car.
While
Powell was working at Area Four, his son Michael was diagnosed with
leukemia -- a cancer linked to radiation exposure -- and died at age 11.
"I suspect it caused the death of my son," he said. "I've never gotten that out of my mind."
Toxic Chemical Contamination
Toxic Chemical Contamination
In
addition to the radiation, dozens of toxic chemicals, including TCE and
Perchlorate, were also released into the air and dumped on the soil and
into ground and surface water from thousands of rocket tests conducted
at the Santa Susana Field lab from the 1950s to 80s. The tests were
conducted by NASA, and by Rocketdyne, a government aerospace contractor.
According
to a federally funded study obtained by the I-Team, "emissions
associated with rocket engine testing" could have been inhaled by
residents of "West Hills, Bell Canyon, Dayton Canyon, Simi Valley,
Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Woodland Hills, and Hidden Hills."
Contamination Moves into Neighborhoods
 |
| NBC News Anchor Colleen Williams standing in front of Santa Susana range (NBC) |
Radiation released at Area Four continues to contaminate the soil and water of the Santa Susana Field Lab.
In
2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completed a $40 million
soil test of the site and found 423 hot spots -- places contaminated with
high levels of man-made radiation.
Other
studies and government documents obtained by the I-Team show that
radiation has moved off-site, and has been found in the ground and water
in suburbs to the south, northeast and northwest of the Field Lab.
"Radiation
doesn't know any boundaries," said Dr. Robert Dodge, a national board
member of the Nobel Prize-winning nonprofit Physicians For Social
Responsibility, which studies the health effects of radiation.
Dodge,
who has reviewed numerous government and academic studies about the
contamination at Santa Susana, said he believes the contamination has
spread far beyond the facility's borders.
"If the wind is blowing and carrying radiation from Santa Susana, it doesn't stop because there's a fence," he said.
One
of the places radiation has been found, in a 1995 study overseen by the
U.S. EPA, was the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley. The
Institute is a nationally-known center of Jewish learning, and the home
to Camp Alonim, a beloved summer sleepaway camp that has hosted some
30,000 children.
In
December 1995, The Brandeis-Bardin Institute filed a federal lawsuit
against the present and past owners of the Santa Susana Field Lab,
alleging that toxic chemicals and radiation from the field lab "have
subsequently seeped into and come to be located in the soil and
groundwater" of Brandeis "is injurious to the environment" and "will
cause great and irreparable injury."
Brandeis settled the lawsuit in a confidential agreement in 1997.
A
spokesman for the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, Rabbi Jay Strear, told
NBC4 that the groundwater and soil is "tested routinely," and the
results have shown the "the site is safe."
The
I-Team asked Brandeis-Bardin to provide NBC4 with those test results
showing the site is safe and free of hazardous substances. The Institute
refused, and in an email said "we are not in a position to devote the
required staff time to respond to your more detailed inquiries, nor do
we see the necessity for doing so."
A
government scientist who has studied the contamination at Santa Susana
told the I-Team he thinks there's a continued threat of radiation and
toxic chemicals flowing from the field lab to places like
Brandeis-Bardin, via groundwater and airborne dust.
Clusters of Cancer
 |
| Cancer is a Bitch says Gail Konop Baker |
"The
radiation that was released in 1959 and thereafter from Santa Susana is
still a danger today," Dr. Dodge said. "There is absolutely a link
between radiation and cancer."
The
I-Team tracked down dozens of people diagnosed with cancer and other
illnesses who grew up in the shadow of Santa Susana -- in Canoga Park,
West Hills, Chatsworth, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley. Many of them believe
their cancers were caused by radiation and chemicals from the field
lab.
Kathryn
Seltzer Carlson, 56, and her sisters, Judy and Jennifer, all grew up in
Canoga Park around the time of the nuclear meltdown and for years
after, and all have battled cancer.
"I
played in the water, I swam in the water, I drank the water" that ran
off the Santa Susana Field Lab, said Carlson, who finished treatment for
ovarian cancer earlier this year and is now undergoing chemotherapy for
lymphoma. "I've had, I don't know how many cancers."
Bonnie
Klea, a former Santa Susana employee who has lived in West Hills since
the 60s, also battled bladder cancer, which is frequently linked to
radiation exposure.
"Every single house on my street had cancer," Klea said.
A
2007 Centers for Disease Control study found that people living within
two miles of the Santa Susana site had a 60 percent higher rate of some
cancers.
"There's
some provocative evidence," said Dr. Hal Morgenstern, an epidemiologist
who oversaw the study. "It's like circumstantial evidence, suggesting
there's a link" between the contamination from Santa Susana and the
higher cancer rates.
Silence From the Government
For
more than two months, the I-Team asked to speak with someone from the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the federal agency that's responsible
for all nuclear testing, to ask:- Why were workers ordered to release dangerous radiation over Los Angeles?
- Why the DOE has never publicly admitted this happened?
- What does it plan to do to help get the site cleaned up?
The DOE emailed the I-Team, "We will not have anyone available for this segment."
So
the I-Team showed up at a public meeting this month about Santa Susana
and asked the DOE's project manager for the site, Jon Jones, to speak
with us. He walked away and wouldn't speak.
Will the Contamination Ever Be Cleaned Up?
Community
residents, many stricken with cancer and other radiation-related
illnesses, have been fighting for years to get the government and the
private owners of the Santa Susana Field Lab to clean up the
contamination that remains on the site.
But efforts in the state legislature and state agencies that oversee toxic sites have, so far, stalled.
But residents, with the support of some lawmakers, continue to fight for a full cleanup.
"People are continuing to breathe that (radiation) in and to die," Chatsworth resident Arline Mathews said.
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