First Nuclear Meltdown Was In Suburban L.A..

This short film from the History Channel documents the formerly secret 1959 meltdown of the sodium-cooled reactor at the Rocketdyne research facility in the hills above Simi Valley, Calif.

Politics, environmental health, and history of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site will be discussed 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, in the Performing Arts Center as part of Moorpark College's Year of the Environment Program.

The talk is free and open to the public. Parking is $1.

Three local activists, Christina Walsh, John Luker, and William Preston Bowling of Clean-up Rocketdyne, will host a discussion of the history and current legal environmental status of the site in Simi Hills.

The research facility saw at least four nuclear accidents and rocket fuel contamination, and has been implicated as a major health hazard, according to the activists.

"This may be one of the biggest local environmental issues that directly affects our community," says Environmental Science Professor Lori Clark of Moorpark College.

For more information, see http://www.cleanuprocketdyne.org/, http://h2ohno.com/, http://www.rocketdynewatch.org and http://www.acmela.org. Sphere: Related Content