Publications

January 8, 2020 – Comments by CBG, PSR-LA, and Natural Resources Defense Council on NASA’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Soil Cleanup
Activities at Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

September 03, 2018 – Comments by the Committee to Bridge the Gap, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles and Southern California Federation of Scientists on the California State Land Commission’s Draft Environmental Impact Report for Decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Plant

September 20, 2017 – Comments by the Committee to Bridge the Gap on the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s Proposed Regulations for Toxicity Criteria for Human Health Risk Assessment

DTSC Reference Number R-2016-8 – CBG Toxicity Criteria Rule Comments (pdf) DTSC Toxicity Criteria Excel Sheet Comparison (pdf)

Correspondence:

Proposed Amendments to EPA Protective Action Guidance (RIN 2060-ZA19) Read the group letter by clicking here. Read our post on the subject here.

Over 100 Groups Call on EPA to Withdraw Dramatically Weakened Radiation Guides Read the group letter here.

EPA Dramatically Weakens Radiation Protections Summary of EPA PAGs Weakening Radiation Protections Letter criticizing NCRP guide for relaxing radiation protections, being sent to NCRP. Critique by CBG, NIRS, PSR-LA, and SCFS of NCRP Draft Report on Late-Phase Recovery from Nuclear or Radiological Incidents

DOE Proposes Unrestricted Recycling of Radioactive Metals Into Consumer Goods Read CBG’s letter to the Department of Energy here.

Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Nuclear Power Operations – Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Docket, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0689 Read our group letter here.

CBG & Other Organizations Oppose Petitions to NRC to Relax Radiation Protections and Declare Radiation Good For You Comments to NRC Opposing Hormesis Petitions for Rulemaking NRDC & CBG Comments LNT Docket 19 Nov 2015

Research Projects:

Nuclear Cleanup: The Standards Conflict (2004) Download Link (.pdf, 1.8mb) The U.S. Department of Energy has recently violated a longstanding Joint DOE-EPA Policy which commits DOE to clean up all its nuclear facilities nationwide to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund (CERCLA) standards. The focal point of this conflict between DOE and EPA cleanup standards is the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), a 2800-acre facility on the Los Angeles-Ventura County line in Southern California.

Written Articles:

Powering the Automobile / Nuclear hydrogen — Lighter side of the energy bill HOT, HOT, HOT: The Future of Nuclear Power (2001 debate over nuclear power) Beauty & the Humiliated Featured in Fellowship magazine, July/August 1978

Reports:

Proposed Relaxation of EPA Drinking Water Standards for Radioactivity Download link (.pdf, 6.6mb) October, 2008 In the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted extraordinary new radiological standards for the governmental response to a wide range of radiological release events. Doug Guarino of the trade publication Inside EPA obtained a copy of the secret draft “Protective Action Guidance for Radiological Incidents,” dated August 2007 and marked “Please Do Not Distribute” and “Do Not Cite or Quote.” Mr. Guarino has written about the concerns the document has triggered within EPA and other state regulators.

In late 2008, it became clear to CBG that EPA was contemplating the issuance of the draft. In this report, we analyze this incredible proposal pushed by EPA leadership. CBG’s report specifically focuses on the proposal to allow the public to ingest drinking water with radioactive concentrations orders of magnitude higher than EPA’s longstanding radiological drinking water standards.

The Proposed Ward Valley Radioactive Waste Facility:

Papers Submitted to the National Academy of Sciences Download link (.pdf, 3.3mb) October 12, 1994 Comprehensive radiation monitoring data for the US Ecology LLRW site at Beatty, Nevada, published in the last few days, provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the validity of optimistic transport models that have been used to predict travel times to groundwater in the tens of millennia. The newly available data show gross alpha readings in groundwater in excess of action levels in eight different years, gross beta in violation of action levels seven years, and tritium in excess ofaction levels four years, with significantly elevated tritium (>1,000 pCi/L) but below action levels an additional four years. The data provide clear evidence that radioactive materials have migrated from the disposal trenches 10 groundwater, 300 feet beneath the surface, in a few decades. The presence of elevated gross alpha, gross beta, and Cobalt-60 in the groundwater, in addition to substantial tritium, rule out vapor-phase migration. These empirical observations of rapid radionuclide migration contrast sharply with predictions by Prudic (1994) for Beatty and Ward Valley using Chloride Mass Balance calculations.

Contamination at the Beatty, Nevada, Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (1996) Download link (.pdf, 15.5mb) [Note: this is a very large file and will take time to download] In the 1990s, contaminants were discovered outside US Ecology’s radioactive waste facility near Beatty, Nevada, and all the way down to groundwater. In this report, we evaluate this discovery and its relevance to the now defunct proposal to dispose of radioactive waste at Ward Valley.

News Reports:

Modern Marvels 19: Engineering Disasters — The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (Transcript)(.pdf)

GAO Stings Nuclear Agency; Obtains License to Buy Radioactive Materials

(2007 ABC News report) SCRIPT: Radioactive Road Trip (Primetime)

Science Friday Interview, Nuclear Security

Dirty Bombs: Dangerous Materials KPHO news story