Electric Substation at SSFL Tripped 2 Minutes Before Fire Reported<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
For Immediate Release:<\/b>\u00a0November 12, 2018<\/p>\n
Contact:\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Denise Duffield<\/b>, 310-339-9676 or\u00a0dduffield@psr-la.org<\/a>,\u00a0Melissa Bumstead<\/b>\u00a0818-298-3192 or\u00a0melissabumstead@sbcglobal.net<\/a>,\u00a0Dan Hirsch<\/strong>,\u00a0831-336-8003<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0dhirsch1 The tremendously destructive Woolsey Fire has been widely reported as beginning \u201cnear\u201d the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL or Rocketdyne), but it appears that the fire began on the Rocketdyne property itself. \u00a0Cal Fire<\/a>\u00a0identifies the fire location as E Street and Alfa Road, a location that is in fact on SSFL. It was recently reported that the \u201cChatsworth electric substation\u201d\u00a0experienced a disturbance<\/a>\u00a02 minutes before the fire was reported, but\u00a0that substation is in fact on SSFL,<\/i>\u00a0near that location. \u00a0A\u00a0photograph posted on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0from KCAL9\u2019s Stu Mundel shows the fire starting Thursday afternoon near the same location, which is only about 1,000 yards away from the site of the 1959 partial nuclear meltdown of the Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) reactor.<\/p>\n The location of the smoke plume and fire from the above photo is shown in the pre-fire Google Earth image below.<\/p>\n A report filed with the California Public Utilities Commission by Southern California. Edison states that the \u201cChatsworth substation\u201d suffered an outage at 2:22 pm Thursday, two minutes before the Woolsey fire is reported to have begun. \u00a0The Chatsworth substation is located \u201c<\/b>within the larger Boeing Rocketdyne Santa Susana complex,\u201d according to a\u00a0<\/b>CPUC document<\/b><\/a>\u00a0(see bottom of page C-15 or page 17 of the pdf.) \u00a0The electrical substation (marked with a pin in the photo above and a circle in the photos below, and enlarged in the last photo) is a few hundred yards to the west of where the fire is shown in the Thursday aerial photo as starting, and a few hundred yards to the east of the SRE complex, where the reactor suffered its accident. The substation had been built in part to provide electricity from the reactor, which was the first reactor to produce commercial electricity for the commercial grid, before it became the first such commercial reactor to suffer a partial meltdown.<\/p>\n Chatsworth substation, between apparent site of start of fire to the right and location of SRE reactor partial meltdown to the left.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Close-up image of Chatsworth substation, just east of SRE partial meltdown site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThough we must wait for fire authorities to conclude their investigation, it is ironic that an electrical substation built for a reactor that melted down six decades ago now may now be associated with a catastrophic fire that began on the SSFL site that is still badly contaminated from that accident and numerous other spills and releases,\u201d said Denise Duffield, Associate Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR-LA.)<\/p>\n Cal Fire maps<\/a>\u00a0indicate that much of SSFL is within the fire boundaries.<\/p>\n Decades of nuclear and rocket-engine testing activity, including nuclear reactor accidents and other toxic spills and releases, have resulted in widespread contamination throughout SSFL\u2019s 2,850 acre facility. Federally-funded studies indicate higher cancer incidents associated with proximity to the site.\u00a0The California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), which has regulatory oversight over the\u00a0parties responsible for cleaning up the contamination \u2013 the Dept. of Energy, NASA, and the Boeing Company \u2013 signed legally binding agreements to fully cleanup the contamination by 2017. However, the cleanup has not even begun and DTSC is considering vastly weaker cleanup plans. \u201cIf DTSC and those responsible for polluting SSFL had not broken their cleanup commitments, we wouldn\u2019t be facing the prospect of contamination now being driven off site by the fire,\u201d said Duffield..<\/p>\n \u201cThe Woolsey Fire likely released and spread radiological and chemical contamination that was in SSFL\u2019s soil and vegetation via smoke and ash,\u201d said Dr. Bob Dodge, President of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles. \u201cAll wildfire smoke can be hazardous to health, but if SSFL had been cleaned up long ago as DTSC promised, we\u2019d at least not have to worry about exposure to dangerous radionuclides and chemicals as well.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement\u00a0released by DTSC approximately\u00a010 hours after the fire began said the agency doesn\u2019t believe the fire caused the release of hazardous substances. \u00a0Mohsen Nazemi, Deputy Director for DTSC\u2019s Brownfields & Environmental Restoration Program, participated in a community meeting Sunday night in Woodland Hills, repeating the same unfounded denials and leaving without taking questions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve learned not to trust anything DTSC says, so we\u2019re demanding independent testing and air monitoring for radiation and chemicals from SSFL,\u201d said Melissa Bumstead, a West HIlls resident whose daughter has twice survived leukemia that she believes was caused by SSFL. Bumstead\u2019s\u00a0Change.org petition<\/a>\u00a0urging that SSFL cleanup commitments be upheld has been signed by over 430,000 people. \u201cDTSC has made one broken promise after another, and it wasn\u2019t truthful about SSFL\u2019s contamination long before the fire started.\u201d said Bumstead. \u201cWhy would we believe DTSC\u2019s statement that the fire caused no additional risk, when they know they\u2019re the ones responsible for SSFL still being contaminated in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n Marie Mason, Simi Valley resident and co-founder of the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, agrees. \u201cWe\u2019re outraged that after all these years, decades of foot-dragging by DTSC, an agency that is captured by polluters, may have resulted in even more toxic exposures. We\u2019ve always worried about a fire at SSFL, and now a massive wildfire has started on site itself. SSFL could have and should have been cleaned up a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n PSR-LA\u2019s Duffield said, \u201cWhile we must await the final investigation of the cause of the fire, the presently available evidence indicates it appears to have begun on the Santa Susana Field Lab, and the failure to clean it up has significantly increased risks to the public nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n # # #<\/p>\n Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR-LA) is the largest chapter of the national organization Physicians for Social Responsibility and has worked for the full cleanup of SSFL for over 30 years.. PSR-LA advocates for policies and practices that protect public health from nuclear and environmental threats and eliminate health disparities.<\/i><\/p>\n Parents vs. SSFL is a grassroots group of concerned parents and residents who demand compliance with cleanup agreements signed in 2010 that require a full cleanup of all radioactive and chemical contamination at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.<\/i><\/p>\n The Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, or RCC, is a community-based alliance dedicated to the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), commonly known as Rocketdyne<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n NOTE: We are demanding independent post-fire testing and air monitoring for radiation and chemicals from SSFL. Given the extent of SSFL\u2019s contamination, precautions recommended by fire authorities, such as limiting outdoor activities and using N95 face masks in smokey areas, are especially important.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/themillenniumreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/dsc07276.jpg\")
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