‘59 Meltdown’s Danger Is Disputed

A 1959 nuclear meltdown at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Chatsworth released far more radiation than was previously known and likely contributed to some area residents developing deadly cancers and other illnesses, according to experts hired by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit pending against the lab’s operator.

A representative for Rocketdyne’s parent company, Boeing Co., called the experts’ findings little more than speculation.

“Their statements add nothing new to the debate and are based on speculative assumptions,” said Boeing spokesman Dan Beck. “It’s a lot of theory, but there’s no scientific evidence of a public health threat or a threat to property as a result of operations at Rocketdyne.”

Moreover, Beck said, three cancer studies conducted by the federal government over the last several years found that rates for thyroid cancer among nearby residents were not higher than levels in the general population.

For more than three decades, Rocketdyne conducted nuclear research at the Santa Susana Field Lab on behalf of the federal government. Public disclosure in 1989 of lingering, low-level contamination from past nuclear projects sparked a public furor and prompted Rocketdyne to halt nuclear operations there the following year. Cleanup of contaminated facilities continues to this day.

Eight scientific experts, including two associated with an international energy and environmental watchdog group, submitted their findings on radiation and chemical exposure on Feb. 12 to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles as part of the 6-year-old lawsuit against Boeing. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include more than 120 area residents.

According to declarations filed with the court, the experts concluded that the plaintiffs’ exposure to hazardous substances released from Rocketdyne’s facilities “in reasonable medical probability, was a substantial factor in contributing to the risk of developing their injuries or cancer.”

The experts hired by the Santa Barbara law firm of Cappello & Noel said the plaintiffs were exposed by inhalation to a number of hazardous substances that caused at least 83 plaintiffs to contract cancer, many of whom have died.

The scientists reached their conclusions based on calculations and analysis of 8.5 million pages of documents turned over by Boeing over the last five years. They considered such factors as the number of years a resident lived in the area, weather conditions on a particular day and the types of chemicals that were known to be used at the plant at the time.

Two experts found that the July 1959 meltdown of an experimental breeder reactor released 15 to 260 times more deadly radiation than was released during the 1979 nuclear reactor disaster in Three Mile Island, Pa.

Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Md., and Bernd Franke, an expert on nuclear contamination and scientific director of the institute in Heidelberg, Germany, made the conclusions.

The partial meltdown was not widely publicized until 20 years after the incident. The company later said there had been no danger to the public or workers.