Rockwell Must List Accidents, Show Crisis Plan : Disclosure Ordered by Nuclear Official as Part of License Renewal Request

A federal nuclear official reviewing Rockwell International’s request for renewal of a nuclear materials license at its Santa Susana lab has asked the firm for information about past chemical and radioactive releases and about emergency plans to cope with a serious accident.

The requests by Peter B. Bloch, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission law judge presiding in the case, came in orders issued Friday and Monday.

In one order, Bloch asked Rockwell to provide a chronological listing of “all significant chemical and radiological contamination incidents or releases at Santa Susana Field Laboratory . . . since 1969.” He also asked for specifics on the substances spilled or released, the causes and corrective actions taken.

Bloch said Monday he specified 1969 to get a record spanning 20 years.

In the other order, Bloch asked Rockwell for information on the need for off-site emergency plans in the event of an accident.

‘Reasonable Request’

“We’ll give him everything he wants,” Paul Sewell, a spokesman for Rockwell’s Rocketdyne division, said Monday. “It’s a perfectly reasonable request.”

Concerning the emergency plan request, Sewell said Rockwell has an on-site “radiological contingency plan which satisfies” NRC regulations. “We’re reviewing our plan now to see what references are made to any off-site emergency,” he said.

Bloch asked that the information be provided “at or prior to” a Sept. 29 hearing in Van Nuys on the license renewal application.

That hearing and a second one next week are in response to letters and petitions signed by 38 opponents of Rockwell’s request for a 10-year license renewal. The opponents contend Rockwell has not managed Santa Susana safely and that a nuclear complex has no place in a densely populated area.

Rockwell says it has safely operated the field laboratory, which sits on a plateau in a rugged area of the Simi Hills west of Chatsworth and southeast of Simi Valley. The 2,668-acre site has been used mainly to test rocket engines for NASA and the Air Force, but a 290-acre portion has been devoted to nuclear research and development for the U.S. Department of Energy and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission.

Both hearings are scheduled for Room 120 of the Van Nuys State Office Building at 6150 Van Nuys Blvd.

Public to Take Part

At the Sept. 28 session, scheduled from 7 to 10:30 p.m., Bloch will hear from the public, but the hearing is informal and comments will not be part of the official record.

On Sept. 29, at 9:30 a.m., Bloch will consider whether to designate the opponents full parties in the case. If granted that status, they would be able to file written evidence and critiques of the application that Bloch would have to consider in the license decision.

The license covers the “hot cell” at Santa Susana, a heavily shielded area where Rockwell performs nuclear experiments and recycles nuclear fuel. The recycling involves snipping open used nuclear fuel rods to remove plutonium and other radioactive materials, which are then packaged and shipped to government reservations for use in reactors or atomic weapons manufacture.

The hot cell license expired earlier this summer but has been continued pending NRC review of the renewal application.

Other nuclear activities at Santa Susana are not at stake in the case because they are not licensed by the NRC. Much of the nuclear work has been exempt from licensing under provisions of the Atomic Energy Act that allow the Department of Energy to function both as customer and regulator.