Los Angeles residents are concerned about potential exposure to radioactive dust particles after the Biden Department of Energy exploded a building at a former nuclear testing site.
Local NBC Los Angeles reported Friday:
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 hills above LA. The building was part of a complex at SSFL used to develop nuclear reactors.
The explosion sent clouds of dust into the sky near residential neighborhoods of what some experts say were radioactive materials.
“I was absolutely flabbergasted,” Dan Hirsch told the NBC Los Angeles I-Team.
Hirsch, the former director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz, added, “I was concerned that that radioactive cloud would migrate to where people are.”
Last month in a press statement, the U.S. Department of Energy claimed the structures had been safely demolished. A video of the demolition was posted to YouTube:
At that time, the Department’s statement said:
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has completed safe demolition of the final DOE-owned buildings at the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC), located northwest of Los Angeles, California. Finishing the teardown of Cold War-era buildings is another important step in the Department’s cleanup activities at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL).
The Department of Energy declined to speak with NBC Los Angeles on camera. Experts note there was no need for explosives to be used and highlighted no dust suppression mechanisms were used.
