Blast Peril Charged : Raided Firm’s Owner Arrested

The owner of a Sun Valley chemical manufacturing company was arrested Tuesday and charged with mishandling radioactive, flammable, explosive and caustic materials, authorities said.

California Bionuclear Corp. and its owner, Riad M. Ahmed, 46, of Culver City, were charged in a 90-count complaint that stemmed from a Jan. 17 raid on the plant at 7654 San Fernando Road, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said.

“When we first found the situation at California Bionuclear, it was literally a bomb waiting to go off,” Hahn said. “A spark could have touched off an explosion capable of leveling the entire block and spreading radiation over several more.”

Radiation readings at the plant were 100 times higher than permissible, the city attorney’s office reported.

Near Grade School

The one-story plant, closed since the raid, is across the street from several houses and a neighborhood bar and is 1 1/2 blocks from an elementary school, Hahn said.

“Once the threat of explosion was removed, the radiation no longer posed a health hazard outside the facility,” Deputy City Atty. Keith W. Pritsker said.

Ahmed and the company each were charged with 52 violations of the city fire code, 35 violations of state radiation control regulations and three violations of city building and safety codes, Hahn said. Each count is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, he said.

Ahmed, who was arrested at his new business location in Gardena, was taken to Parker Center police headquarters and held Tuesday afternoon in lieu of $20,000 bail, Pritsker said. Arraignment was scheduled for Sept. 11.

Ahmed could not be reached for comment.

The complaint was not issued until Tuesday because city, county and state agencies involved in the raid needed time to test the materials removed from the site and to complete their reports, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney.

The company provided radioactive compounds to the Army, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and companies and universities in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the city attorney’s office.

Plans for the raid were laid Jan. 16 after a city fire inspector concluded that there was a serious danger of explosion at the plant, Hahn said. When authorities began their raid, they found the plant locked and its five employees gone, he said.

“Upon entering the facility, they found telephones off the hooks, papers scattered about and chemical reactions in progress, some of them on burners,” Hahn said.

A bomb squad removed explosive materials and detonated them in an isolated area near the Burbank Airport.