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Did California give Boeing a pass on a major pollution cleanup? (LA Times)
Read Michael Hiltzik’s new column on the SSFL.
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State’s new deal to clean up radioactive Santa Susana Field Lab is slammed by critics (LA Daily News)
“Nearly 15 years ago the Boeing Company and the state agency that oversees cleanup of the radioactively and chemically polluted Santa Susana Field Lab signed an agreement that asked Boeing...
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State Announces Clean Up For Contaminated Nuclear Site, Which Advocates Call ‘A Back Room Deal’ (NBC4)
“The state on Monday announced an agreement with the Boeing Corporation to clean up a large part of one of California’s most contaminated sites–the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL)–located in...
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Safety questions arise as Los Alamos National Laboratory pursues pit production
“There’s no safe level of radiation,” Hirsch said. “The issue is how dangerous is acceptable. The whole game is that they are allowing extraordinarily high levels of radiation exposure.” Read...
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In Memoriam: Joe Maizlish – War Resister, Gentle Soul, Dear Friend
Joe Maizlish—war resister, gentle soul, and dear friend of Bridge the Gap—died March 16, 2022. While a graduate student in history at UCLA in 1968, to protest the Vietnam War, Joe gave up his draft deferment and publicly refused induction. He served 2 ½ years in various federal prisons, a substantial amount of the time in solitary confinement. In the decades since, he worked diligently against war and injustice. He helped found the Southern California Nonviolence Community. He advocated for a peaceful and just resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He worked for an end to the underlying and systemic causes of violence. In his person, he also embodied the values of gentleness, humility, and caring that he worked for in the world at large. The photo of Joe refusing induction [click photo for larger version] exemplifies who he was at heart: someone who did the right thing, at great personal cost, and who gently asked us all, what are we going to do to help transform a world filled with war?
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CBG et al. Presentation to LA Water Board Rejecting Weakened SSFL Pollution Permit
On February 10, Dan Hirsch and Melissa Bumstead gave a presentation to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board on behalf of CBG, Parents Vs. SSFL, Physicians for Social...
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Nuclear energy backers say it’s vital for the fight against global warming. Don’t be so sure (LA Times)
“The 1959 explosion of a sodium-cooled test reactor at the government’s secretive Santa Susana Field Laboratory outside Simi Valley remains the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, venting an immense...
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Are radioactive wildfires next on California’s apocalyptic climate-change guest list? (SF Chronicle)
“In 1959, there was a partial nuclear reactor meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County. The release, which was swept under the rug for decades, may have...
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Fighting to expose the lies (Simi Valley Acorn)
Melissa Bumstead writes in the Simi Valley Acorn, “In regards to the article “Field lab doc highlights lack of trust,” I’d like to clarify what happened at the NASA meeting...
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Watchdog’s report raises concerns on plutonium at Los Alamos (Santa Fe New Mexican)
““They’ve identified another safety hazard at Los Alamos … and they’re estimating doses that are astronomical,” said Dan Hirsch, retired director of environment and nuclear policy programs at the University...
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Radioactive contamination is creeping into drinking water around the U.S. (Ensia)
“When Jeni Knack moved to Simi Valley, California, in 2018, she had no idea that her family’s new home was within 5 miles of a former nuclear and rocket testing...
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Woolsey Fire Spread Radioactive Contamination (VC Reporter)
“A peer-reviewed study published in the December 2021 issue of Journal of Environmental Radioactivity (JER) has found that radioactive contaminated particles were spread during the 2018 Woolsey Fire from Santa...
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Environmental groups say safety measures lacking as Santa Susana Field Lab buildings demolished (LA Daily News)
“The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab wrote in the letter that the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, also known as DTSC, endangered...
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Explosion Sends Potentially Radioactive Dust Into Air Above LA (NBC LA)
The U.S. Department of Energy demolished a building using explosives last month at the highly contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL), a former nuclear and rocket test site in the...
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Parents of young cancer patients driven to activism after cases get linked to nearby nuclear lab (MSNBC)
In conjunction with the release today of the new SSFL documentary In the Dark of the Valley, Melissa Bumstead was interviewed on MSNBC. Watch her interview here.