SANTA SUSANA MOUNTAINS : Radioactive Tritium Found Outside Lab

New soil tests have found low levels of radioactive pollution just outside the northern boundary of Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, officials said Friday.

Environmental officials said that the levels of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, are so low that they do not pose a health risk. The tritium was found about 100 feet from the lab’s property line.

The test results mark the second time that traces of tritium have been found outside the 2,600-acre lab site, located northwest of Chatsworth in the Santa Susana Mountains. Last August, it was revealed that low levels of tritium had been found in a test well about 100 feet from the lab’s northwest perimeter. Ground water wells in the area are not used for drinking.

Rockwell formerly did research and testing on nuclear reactors for the federal government at the Santa Susana lab and for years maintained that there was no evidence of off-site radioactive contamination.

The soil and water tests were taken on property owned by Brandeis-Bardin Institute, which runs a children’s day-care camp about a mile away from the test sites.

“We’re very concerned,” said Helen Eisenstein, an attorney for Brandeis-Bardin. “We had been informed that they didn’t expect to find anything, and now we’re distressed.”

Eisenstein said Brandeis-Bardin will wait until further tests are completed before deciding what action to take. In the meantime, she said, the camp has fenced off the contaminated areas.