Boeing Had Sued California to Block Cleanup Law for Meltdown Site
Bridge the Gap, the S. Calif. Federation of Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA, and the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, represented by Loyola Law School Environmental Law Professor Dan Selmi, filed an amicus brief supporting California's position in a lawsuit brought by Boeing to block SB990, the state law governing cleanup of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab. Click here to read the brief, here for the exhibits, and here for the motion to be admitted as an amicus. Read the state's brief here.
December 19 2009 Dispute over radioactive dirt going to Calif site. CBG's Dan Hirsch: "a defacto unlicensed radioactive dump at a place not designed for it."
December 5 2009 CBG has issued its annual report, which can be viewed here (pdf).
February, 2010: Teens Against Toxins, a group of high school students alarmed by the Boeing Company’s refusal to clean up the radioactive and toxic contamination at its Santa Susana Field Lab near where they live, recently held a bake-sale to raise money to be donated to the Boeing Company, which claims a state-ordered cleanup would be a financial burden. The bake sale featured Chocolate Meltdowns and other nuclear-themed treats. The purpose was to raise funds for Boeing, which is suing to avoid complying with a state-ordered cleanup of toxic waste resulting from a 1959 nuclear meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Lab above the San Fernando, Simi and Conejo Valleys. The Boeing Company, which made more than $68.0 billion in 2009, is claiming it would be a financial hardship to have to follow the California law on cleaning up the contamination. Boeing refused to accept the $99.31 raised by the teens, so they donated it to cancer research. Click here to see their YouTube video.
50th Anniversary of LA's Partial Nuclear Meltdown
In July 1959, a reactor in the Los Angeles area suffered a partial meltdown. The Atomic Energy Commission kept the accident secret for decades, until Bridge the Gap was able to bring it to public attention. Fifty years after the extraordinary accident, radioactive and chemical contamination at the site still hasn't been cleaned up. For more information, including access to rare footage and photos of the meltdown, click here.
CBG Leads Effort to Get Obama EPA to
Block Pending Proposals to Relax Radiation Protections
A whole range of proposals left over from the Bush Administration to markedly relax standards for radiation protection remain pending before the new leadership at EPA. In August, CBG led an effort by numerous groups to get the new leadership at EPA to reverse these proposals; see our letter and supporting materials here.
In November, CBG's Dan Hirsch led a delegation to an extraordinary meeting with three Assistant Administrators at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., to press them to block carryover efforts to allow markedly increased radiation exposures of the public. Dan's PowerPoint presentation to EPA about these very dangerous proposals can be viewed here (powerpoint or a powerpoint presentation viewer is required to view).
Also, Congressman Ed Markey, Chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, wrote EPA on October 27, raising many of the issues CBG had put forward. His letter can be viewed here. It remains to be seen whether the Obama Administration, on these issues as on so many others, will in fact represent the change for which so many had hoped.
CBG's Hirsch testifies before U.S. Senate Environment Committee About "Nuclear Amnesia"
September 18 – At the invitation of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, CBG's Dan Hirsch testified in Washington on September 18. Using the history of nuclear accidents, radioactive spills, releases, and broken cleanup promises from the Santa Susana Field Lab as a case study, Hirsch warns that an effort to revive nuclear power risks a huge repeat of the disasters the last we tried this.
Read his testimony here. Watch the entire hearing by clicking here.
California Nuke initiative Bites the Dust
"Huge Victory"
November 19 – A proposed ballot measure to revoke California's nuclear safeguards law -- which prohibits new reactors until and unless there is a permanent solution to the high level radioactive waste disposal problem -- was withdrawn from circulation by its sponsor on November 19. Bridge the Gap and other groups had worked hard to fight efforts to place the initiative on the ballot, forcing a recognition that its chances of passage were dismal. "This reversal may represent the beginning of the end for nuclear advocates pushing for a revival of this terribly dangerous technology," said CBG's Dan Hirsch.
CBG's Dan Hirsch Debates Nuclear Power
With Chuck DeVore
Hirsch made an appearance on "Inside OC" (see video below) to
debunk some of the arguments behind the current push for nuclear power in California. He also appeared on "Life & Times" to discuss the nuclear initiative as well. That video is available here.
Court Victory on SSFL nuke site
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has just issued its long-awaited decision in the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy by the Committee to Bridge the Gap, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the City of Los Angeles. The suit was filed over the inadequate cleanup of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory, site of one of the only reactor meltdowns in the world. Judge Samuel Conti declared that the DOE has violated and continues to violate the National Environmental Policy Act and permanently enjoined DOE from transferring ownership or possession, or otherwise relinquishing control over any portion of the nuclear area at SSFL until an Environmental Impact Statement has been completed.
The Committee to Bridge the Gap is a nuclear policy organization focusing on issues regarding nuclear safety, nuclear security, nuclear safeguards, nuclear terrorism, nuclear proliferation, nuclear accidents, and the disposal of nuclear waste. Specifically, Bridge the Gap offers analyses of national issues related to nuclear terrorism at reactors, potential dirty bomb threats, and other radiological threats from terrorist organizations. We also address problems associated with cleanup of radioactive contamination. Bridge the Gap's view is that given current costs and safety concerns, nuclear is not a real solution to our current energy needs or the answer to global warming. We also focus on issues affecting the state of California, including opposing a potential ballot initiative that would overturn California's law establishing a moratorium on new nuclear plants until there is a solution to the high level radioactive waste problem. Bridge the Gap is active in addressing the push by the nuclear industry for a revival of nuclear power in this country, which ignores the host of nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, atomic accident, radioactive waste, and cost problems.
