Delays in cleaning up toxic material from a partial nuclear reactor meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Lab near Simi Valley, and from other accidents and practices there, will be the topic of an online Community Forum on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
The basis for the discussion will be the 2021 documentary film "In the Dark of the Valley," which shows how operations at the former nuclear lab and rocket testing facility released atomic radiation and toxic material into the environment. The 1959 nuclear accident attracted little attention at the time, but decades later, some experts have said it released up to 260 times the radiation that occurred at Three Mile Island, and nuclear contaminants remain in the soil.
Thousands of test firings of rocket engines over six decades rattled neighborhoods in nearby Simi Valley and the engines were flushed with trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical identified as a carcinogen. An estimated half million gallons of TCE were released into catch basins over the years and ran freely into the ground, according to NASA and other government reports.
Those logging in to the forum will receive a link to view the film in advance, and three speakers will focus on barriers to cleanup efforts, years of delay, public health consequences and how to help.
-- Robert Dodge, a family physician in Ventura, is president of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles and is co-chair of the organization's Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
-- Denise Duffield, who appears in the documentary, is Associate Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles and heads its nuclear threats program. She leads the group's efforts to ensure a full cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site.
--Melissa Bumstead, featured in the film, is a Simi Valley mother who became an "accidental activist" after her 4-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukemia in 2014. While her daughter was being treated at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, she met other families whose children had cancer and found that many of them, like her own family, lived within miles of the field lab. She has devoted years to speaking at public hearings, attending rallies and organizing support for cleaning up the site. She launched a change.org petition that now has more than 740,000 signatures.
The forum, a program of Chalice Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Conejo Valley, is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome. For information and a link to the event, visit forum.chaliceuu.org.org. For questions, contact Randall Edwards via e-mail at forum@chaliceuu.org or through the church office at (805) 498-9548.
