SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (KNX) — The U.S. Department of Energy demolished a building with explosives last month at a highly contaminated nuclear and rocket test site in the hills above Los Angeles. The explosion on Oct. 1 sent a cloud of dust into the sky some said contained radioactive materials.
"There was absolutely no rationale for blowing it up. You would then be tossing that potentially radioactive material into the air," said Dan Hirsch, former Director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The Santa Susana Field Lab, near Simi Valley, was scorched by the 2018 Woolsey Fire. A peer reviewed study has since revealed that radioactive dust and ash were indeed pumped into the sky over L.A. County as a result.
People who live near Santa Susana fear the recent explosion may have caused a similar incursion of radioactive dust into surrounding neighborhoods.
"I absolutely think that dust could've had dangerous materials in it," Jeni Knack, who lives in Simi Valley, told NBC4.
Former Energy Department officials have also been critical of demolition method.
"Not the method that I would have chosen," said Anne White, an Assistant U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Trump, who oversaw contaminated sites like Santa Susana.
"You pull it apart like you would with any other type of building that you’re demolishing. You use a lot of water… a lot of dust suppression," White said.
In a statement, the Energy Department said it "used demolition techniques that reduced dust generation ... and minimized any contamination that could ahve become airborne." It also insisted explosives were only used on "non-radiological facilities."
After reviewing video of the Santa Susana demolition, White said she did "not see any dust suppression mechanisms" in use.
