LOS ANGELES : Suit Links Woman’s Cancer to Nuclear Reactor Site

A former Simi Valley resident claims in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles that she contracted thyroid cancer while playing in fields and drinking water near a Rockwell Inc. testing laboratory’s nuclear reactor.

Summer Kristine Colvin, who now lives in Bermuda Downs, Calif., alleges in her suit that the operators of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory’s nuclear reactor failed to properly clean up the soil and water sources following meltdowns and radiation leaks.

Timothy Donnelly, an attorney for Rockwell Inc., which has operated the testing facility since the 1950s, was unavailable to comment on the suit, which was flied Monday. However, in a letter, Donnelly urged Colvin’s lawyer not to file suit against Rockwell, saying the complaint was based on “sheer, unfounded speculation.”

Colvin, 23, has suspended chemotherapy treatment while she is pregnant.

She is seeking $55 million in actual and punitive damages against Rockwell, its subsidiary Rocketdyne, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, Atomics International and North American Aviation Inc.