Atomic Mirror and Clean Up Rocketdyne present

America’s Forgotten Nuclear Disaster in the Santa Susana Hills
The Call for Responsible Science

6 November 2007
Oxnard College
11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) is home to America’s largest nuclear disaster, shrouded in secrecy for nearly fifty years. Located just 30 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, the site was created as a government facility to develop and test nuclear reactors and rockets. In 1959, a partial nuclear meltdown released deadly radiation into the area, estimated at 260 times the level from the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. The SSFL site has never been thoroughly cleaned up, despite studies finding widespread nuclear and chemical contamination and increased cancer rates among workers at the site and residents of the area. Currently, the future of the SSFL is in question, with the community demanding an EPA-level clean-up and the owners of the site (the Boeing Company) planning to release the site for unrestricted development. Join us for a discussion of the health and environmental impacts of the SSFL nuclear disaster and the community and legislative efforts for a proper clean-up.

The presentation will be followed by a special message to students and future scientists from the late Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Peace Laureate who walked away from the Manhattan Project and work on the atomic bomb, and mentor to the Atomic Mirror. We will also report on how this work fits into the global knowledge and work on nuclear issues, viewed through the lens of the United Nations First Committee on International Peace and Security. (The Atomic Mirror will have just returned from the UN meetings.)

For more information on Santa Susana, see www.cleanuprocketdyne.org