The Cold War and the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

here goes all the "my dad/uncle/grandpa/brother/friend worked there..." comments. Stfu 🙄

How did you get the last part done in one take??

Boeing responsible for making something safe again? Good luck with that.

Great video. How many place like this exist around the country but people are in the dark. Florida probably has a few of these as companies had operations in what were remote area in the 50s

I OWNED A HOME IN SIMI VALLEY......RIGHT BELLOW THE SANTA SUZANNA PASS.....
IT WAS LOUD. THE GROUND
RUMBLED.......AND WHEN THE ATOMIC MELTDOWN HAPPENED...67. PEOPLE DIED OF RADIOACTIVITY RELATED DISEASES.....CANCER

IS THAT AREA STILL CONTAMINATED TODAY?

I was involved on a remediation project in 2000 at area 4. We were never told we were cleaning up after a partial reactor meltdown.

Nicely done.The shit we pulled in the old days needs remembered and I'm sorry to those who paid the ultimate cost.

Wow, I was going to make an offer on a house less than 3 miles from this site. I was poking around on google maps, seeing where I could go off roading and landed on the SSFL reviews page on google. Started looking a few things up and landed on your video here. I am so glad I found this. I will more than likely not purchase that home after watching this video. Has there been any updates on cleanup since you made this video? Thanks man 🙏🏼

I went to school at the bottom of this hill..

As someone who grew up just a few miles away from the Field Laboratory, I can tell you that the terrain had zero impact on the sound when testing rocket engines. It was an absolutely deafening sound even miles away.

Both my parents worked at rocketdine and Northrop Grumman and actually met there back when it was rocketdine. I don’t know what either of my parents did for work other than what company they worked for so I always find these videos interesting

I feel a little sad to see all this ripped down.I know there was a downside to these experiments but all of us have had a lot of benefits from it that we can't give up. It is the history of modern power never to be redone. like a lot of us that grew up around here, I experienced the sonic booms and hiked up there with my friend Vince Kitchen smoking some weed and getting kicked out of this spot, There was a certain energy then that I felt strongly, It was a powerful time for the future of mankind. I had a Panasonic tape recorder with the lamb lies down on broadway playing, hanging out in the coco stand. Helicopters are telling us to get out because we are in danger. Kind of stupid but we were young. I thinks the ground is what's more contaminated possibly, i don't know. i thinks the last surviving stands are safe and should be preserved for future generations too see with there own eyes. Not Ai's

I live in East Ventura County and had no idea about this until about 20 minutes ago. Saw some comments on instagram of people who have auto immune disease and other cancers. Talk about a cover up

I worked there 1955 to 1964

My father worked for North American Aviation up until the merger and layoffs of the 1970's ....

It’s about time that private companies doing government research are now longer persecuted for performing government research and instead the government (and taxpayers) foot the bill for cleanup.
I worked as a HazMat supervisor at a superfund site and some of the idiocy was beyond logic. For instance, when the base determines that a higher impact berm was needed on the rifle range the EPA suits stopped the project and required all lead contaminated soil to be removed and only them could clean dirt be piled up on the berm…. Only to immediately be “contaminated” with lead rifle bullets.
At least the federal government was paying the bill for that idiocy.
Decades later the small town where I lived went to dredge a small channel that accessed a boat ramp. As soon as the silt was dredged up from the bottom it became “toxic waste” and couldn’t be piled on the side of the channel because “the toxics could wash into the river”. But if it was left on the bottom of the channel all was well.
Idiocracy was written and produced as a farsical comedy. Unfortunately it’s become a documentary.

My father worked for Rocketdyne from the early 50’s until 1965 when he transferred to KSC. He died of cancer February 6, 1972 (my 11th birthday). I didn’t know about the lawsuits until 2012. I’m sure he was just one more victim of the incompetence of the safety measures and the coverup that took place.

Not a good buffer for the sound !! I went to school in Simi Valley and we ALWAYS heard when they were testing those

Funny to think that Krishna Venta was running around the hills barefoot while this was going on.

You left out the part where both experts for DOE and the Plaintiffs suing DOE for the release of radioactive materials at SSFL agreed the the alleged “whistleblower” ( in reality the spouse of one of the reactor operators) overstated the release of radioactive material by a factor of 100 times. Her testimony was stricken from the trial transcript

I’m a Granddaughter of a SSL victim. Currently undergoing genetic counseling to see how the SSL incident affected me personally. Compensation should be coming from Boeing for our suffering.

Used to deliver to the W*M distribution center in Northern Utah.
New that a test was scheduled that evening just a mile away at Morton Thiokol. The other bobtails parked with me doubted that the sky was going to burn bright just after midnight. But then . . . what could a female voice on the C.B. know?

Thank you for this piece. When I was 12-13 years old I was living on the Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks border in the 1960s during Rocketdyne's test of the Saturn V rocket engines. Although we were living 15-16 miles away, as the crow flies, we could feel the house shake. I would ask my dad if it was a earthquake, he would aways say, no it's just Rockedyne testing engines. Decades later while living in Seattle, I visited Boeing's museum of flight. The Saturn V engine was on display as part of an Apollo 8 exhibit. I learned each engine burned 5,000 gallons of kerosene per second. I will aways remember the experience of feeling the ground shake during those tests.

There is a difference between contamination from the many chemicals released during the rocket days and any nuclear materials from the atomic reactor tests. Radioactive materials broadcast their location and these atoms and their concentrations can be detected. All of the chemicals and solvents disposed of during the rocket testing and experiments require expensive chemical testing.

My dad and brother worked on the Hill. Dad talked about one of the melt downs, and also about an employee that died of radiation exposure. He said they had to shower and change clothes when leaving for the day. The employee that passed apparently had also showered but wore the same socks home that that was where the exposure came from. Apparently the clothes hamper was "hot". So dad always had spare socks in the glove box.

Wow. I lived in Canoga Park and didn't know anything about the history of the land. Scary.

DOE is complicit in the deaths of children in this area of the San Fernando Valley. Militarism doesn’t just kill the so-called “enemies.” It kills American children at home.

Oh wow, powered Moorpark in 1957. That was what, two streetlights and 4 houses? [Population in 1960 was 2002]

That's MOORPARK, not Moore Park.

I lived in the Simi Valley in the 1960s and RocketDyne tested rocket engines. When they did so at night lit up the whole valley. Some times there was a thunderous roar with no flame apparent.

Never go with Morgan and Morgan...they only take easy win cases that they can make money on...the rest they don't give a crap about

My wife died Christmas Eve 2021. No one in her family including her 11 brothers and sisters have any cancers. The Santa Susana laboratory is the direct result of my wife’s death. I just pray That nobody needs to go through the pain I live with every day because my wife was taking from me by the irresponsible acts of the “professionals “.

And now it’s killing innocent young men and women too now

Got Google News recommendation from subject: "Girl's Cancer Leads Mom to 'Overwhelming' Discovery of More Than 50 Sick Kids Near Closed Nuclear Lab".
Surprised to find that the USA was as bad as the Soviet Union back then, and possibly are even now, or do people/systems change? Putin is from that era at least...

They would light up the night sky when I was a kid living in Encino.

You should look into SL-1 reactor accident.

Amazing , right under our nose !

Interesting information

Who ever cut your hair should be prosecuted.

I grew up in Canoga Park, just out side of the 2 mile circle of the SSFL. I used to play in bell creek, in the nuclear run-off. I guess I'll look for a class action suit to join.

Lived Granada Hills moved there 1954.Graduated from that High School.1961.

Lets see, we're people, and people screw up...all the damn time!

I did nuke alert in the USAF. It was mega secret. We made little mistakes all the time.

It's hard for me to believe we humans have got away with a jillion mistakes. Very very hard to believe because everything is mega secret, and CYA is SOP.

Spent most of young life hanging around chastworth park, , stoners den and the hills near this lab. I remember being told to stay away from there. Could get sick. I was 15 when i first heard this.
Once me and some friends where in the hills on the west of Topanga Canyon and one of those engines went off. The concussion was killer. It was so strong it made me sick. Sure i got a poisoning from it. I was so close i could smell it. Never went near there again .

...........In 1961, I lived on Topanga Canyon Blvd in Chatsworth, right next to the railroad tracks. And across Topanga from Rancho San Antonio Home for Boys run by the Catholic Jesuit Brothers/Priests. Anytime we heard the rockets at Rocketdyne start up usually in the afternoon or evening, and start to rumble, we would run outside to feel the shaking of the ground and air, and see the flames of the rocket engines flare up into the sky above the rocky Santa Susana Mts. It was exciting to us kids. Our Cub Scout, and Boy Scout Troops went on field trips up there to see the Field Laboratory. And got to see tests taking place from behind the barriers. Later in 62, I lived over in Canoga in a relatively new housing subdivision, and went to Columbus Junior High. And still, in the afternoons or evenings several times a week we would hear the rockets engines starting to roar, and feel the ground shake, and watch the flames shoot up over the rocky hills of SS. We kids were proud to be so close to all the science and technology happening around us, and many of us dreamed of growing up and being part of it.......Then growing older, finding girls fascinating, and the importance of money and cars to accomplish things. In 64 I got in trouble stealing cars, and ended up in Rancho San Antonio home for Boys on Topanga in Chatsworth across from where I had lived four years earlier, and again I listened to the sound of the testing up in the hills, and the roar of the engines, and the flames shooting up towards the sky. Pretty soon Rocketdyne became unimportant, while Vietnam became all the news and life around us.....And soon I headed off like so many others to the military, and the war in Vietnam. And life was forever different......

We've come a long way from the 1950's. Some look back and play keyboard warrior with no regard for the time frame.
So much experience was gained, and it's hard to fathom the amount of knowledge we learned.

That radioactive sodium burn pit tho

There is/was a lady who was quite active in sounding the alarm about SSFL. As I understand it at one time, in an effort to placate/comfort her, she was shown two different aerial maps of the facility, one from the 60's and one current. As she looked at these two photos she noted that in the 60's photo there was a large excavation that did not exist in the current photo. When she asked "What happened to that hole?". The official reply was "er, ah, yes well ...." Turns out that alot of toxic materials was simply pushed into the hole and covered up. BUSTED