A 2018 wildfire that burned large sections of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties did not spread large amounts of radiological contaminants beyond the Department of Energy’s portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, according to a new report.
DOE Radiological Assistance Program field teams took environmental samples during and after the Woolsey fire and found no evidence contamination spread beyond DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center, according to the recent report.
That is the summary finding of the report announced last week by California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is the primary state regulator of the cleanup of Santa Susana.
“DOE emergency response assets have a clearly defined mission space of responding to radiological emergencies,” according to the report. “None of the samples and measurements collected by DOE RAP indicated that a radiological emergency occurred during the Woolsey fire.”
All measurements and samples collected beyond the boundaries of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory indicate normal environmental levels of radioactivity, according to the report. In particular, Cesium-137 was not detected in any of the air samples, according to the report.
The group, Physicians for Social Responsibility, has previously maintained that radiological contamination migrated offsite during the fire.
The field laboratory property is the roughly 2,850-acre site in Simi Valley where rocket engine testing and nuclear research took place for several decades. Boeing, NASA and DOE are the parties responsible for remediating the property.
The area where DOE did its research is relatively small, around 90 acres, and DOE has torn all of its structures down to the ground.