SANTA SUSANA FIELD LABORATORY

Demolition of Boeing-Owned Buildings in Area IV (2026)

Demolition Announcement

On September 1, 2026, DTSC announced that Boeing had commenced demolition of its five remaining decommissioned, former nuclear/radiological buildings in Area IV. These buildings had originally been approved for demolition and disposal in 2013 prior to the PSR-LA Petition and Complaint. The original 2013 complaint and 2018 appeal were both defeated in California Courts following 10-years of litigation. See PSR-LA Petition & Complaint.

Ventura County has authority over this building demolition.

The NOE states. "The demolition involves the removal of the above ground portions of the five Boeing-owned building structures. No foundations will be removed, and no subsurface work will be performed. This project is not part of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) remediation project at SSFL, and neither DTSC nor the California Department of Public Health have authority over the removal of the structures. In addition, the structures to be removed are not part of Department of Energy (DOE) building removal project. This is not a federal action of any sort. Boeing previously received zoning clearances for other Boeing-owned structures in this area of SSFL from the County."

Complaint by Parents Against Santa Susana Field Laboratory (PASSFL)

The Parents Against Santa Susana Field Laboratory (PASSFL) latest disinformation campaign against SSFL centers around Boeing’s plans to demolish and dispose of four remaining former nuclear/radiological facilities that have been decommissioned.

Response to PASSFL

The title, “Just Because It’s Legal Doesn’t Mean It’s Safe” acknowledges that the planned demolition is legal. It is legal and safe because (1) regulatory guidelines have been followed in the decommissioning surveying and release of these facilities, (2) numerous regulatory agencies have had oversight and have validated the decommissioning, (3) California Courts have denied PSR-LA’s Petition & Complaint, and (4) disposal of decommissioned material safely to Class I hazardous waste landfills complies with California Executive Order D-62-02 (2002). Yes … it’s legal and safe!!!

Quantification of Potential Release of Pu-239, Dispersion Analysis and Dose Assessment During Demolition of Building 4055

PASSFL claims that hypothetical release of Pu-239 during demolition of the decommissioned former Nuclear Materials Development Facility (Building 4055) will seriously harm the community. PASSFL states, "we’re concerned that if plutonium-239 is not properly disposed of, it may poison generations of people for 500,000 years." These allegations are made without any quantitative analysis.

The Nuclear Materials Development Facility (NMDF) operated during the era of the Atomics Internatioanl (AI) Division of Rockwell International. Today, artificial intellegence (also known as AI) is perhaps the only entity that can evaluate "big data" and derive quantitative results and conclusions without any bias or preconceived opinions. For these reasons, AI was chosen to quantify the real risk of demolition of Building 4055.

ChatGPT was provided with the following Building 4055 decommissioning related documents, and asked to estimate a potential Pu-239 source term based on survey data, and estimate potential off-site exposures during demolition.

Using ultra-conservative assumptions that (1) all internal and external building surfaces had the same maximum measured gross-alpha surface activity, and (2) all gross-alpha surface activity was attributable to Pu-239, and (3) the extreme hypothetical assumption that 100% of that activity became airborne in respirable form during demolition, screening-level atmospheric dispersion assessments calculated off-site doses of less than or equal to 3 microrem for neighboring communities. Applying a cancer incidence risk coefficient of 0.001 per rem, and assuming that the linear-no-threshold (LNT) theory of radiation risk is valid at these small doses, yields theoretical incremental cancer risks of less than 3 in a billion. These conservative doses are extremely small compared to natural background radiation. Background gamma radiation from cosmic rays and naturally occurring radioactivity in soil and rock is approximately 10 microrem per hour or 3 microrem every 18 minutes. These results are conditional screening estimates, not absolute upper bounds for all meteorological or demolition conditions..

Debunking the Scary Stuff About Plutonium

A couple of statements about plutonium-239 have become de rigueur memes during recent years. As with most memes, there are elements of truth intermixed with disingenuous hyperbole.