TODAY. The California wildfires and the unmentioned threat of nuclear radiation
Australian Independent Media, https://theaimn.net/the-california-wildfires-and-the-unmentioned-threat-of-nuclear-radiation/ 12 January 2025
So far, the corporate media is not mentioning the potential threat of the Los Angeles horror fires to the Santa Susana Field Nuclear Laboratory.
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) is located approximately 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Hollywood and approximately 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The Field Lab was the site of a nuclear meltdown in 1959, and its area is radioactively contaminated. Many locals and doctors condemn inadequate cleanup efforts, and link them to high cancer rates which are 60% higher for those people living within a 2 mile radius of the SSFL.
In 2018 the Woolsey Fire, devastating swathes of Ventura and northwestern Los Angeles Counties, started at the SSFL. The fire burned 96,949 acres (39,234 hectares) of land, destroyed 1,643 structures, and caused the evacuation of over 295,000 people.
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control said sampling by multiple agencies found no off-site radiation or other hazardous material attributable to the fire. But another study, using hundreds of samples collected by volunteers, found radioactive microparticles in ash just outside of the lab boundary and at three sites farther away that researchers say were from the fire. Here was a case of a wildfire that started at a nuclear facility, with the danger of ionising radiation affecting surrounding areas.
The Woolsey fire started in a nuclear laboratory, but what about wildfires that start elsewhere and spread to nuclear facilities?
In Texas in February 2024, the largest wildfire in Texas history came within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the Pantex Plant, the nation’s primary nuclear weapons facility. A 2000 wildfire burned to within a half mile (0.8 kilometers) of a radioactive waste site. the 40-square-mile Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Also in 2000, a wildfire burned one-third of the 580-square-mile (1,502-square-kilometer) of the plutonium-contaminated Hanford nuclear site in Washington
Across the United States there are 94 operating nuclear power reactors, 54 nuclear power plants operating, 42 permanently shut-down ones, and 31 operating research reactors. Also there are nuclear military facilities, including government-owned sites, military bases, and laboratories.
So far, the corporate media is not mentioning the potential threat to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, so here’s hoping that SSFL is not going to be impacted by the current wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area, – with the danger of widespread radioactive fallout.
But how long can the authorities and the media pretend that wildfires, that climate change, are not a huge danger to nuclear sites? For how long is the public supposed to believe the fairy tale that nuclear power is the solution to climate change?
The Los Angeles wildfire is a frightening and dramatic example of the new type of fire – an idea that people have not come to grips with. Our former view of wildfires, bushfires, was that they happen in forests. We’re not used to big grassfires. We’re not used to huge fires that travel at a much greater speed than before, that fling embers for great distances, that themselves create greater wind strength.
California has, over the past few years, experiencing drought, and big wildfires, In 2024 a total of 8,024 wildfires burned a cumulative 1,050,012 acres (424,925 ha). While many structures were destroyed, the current fire is a new development- with the shocking revelation that now, not only grassy areas, but cities can be wiped out.
For Australia -what a warning! It could all happen here. Much of Australia’s southeast coast has similarities with coastal California.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is opening his electoral campaign, with the Liberal Coalition’s plan for a nuclear Australia. And the Labor government in concert with the Opposition, is all for the AUKUS nuclear submarine project, with its nuclear problems of terrorism risks, and waste disposal. Neither political party seems aware of Australia’s great opportunity to be the almost completely nuclear-free continent, avoiding the dangers that global heating brings to nuclear sites.
Los Angeles fire a wake up call for Australia
COMMENT. Let’s be aware of the danger to nuclear facilities. The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is located approximately 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Hollywood and approximately 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The hot lab suffered a number of fires involving radioactive materials. For example, in 1957, a fire in the hot cell “got out of control and … massive contamination” resulted. A radioactive fire occurred in 1971, involving combustible primary reactor coolant (NaK) contaminated with mixed fission products. The 2018 Woolsey Fire began at SSFL and burned about 80% of the site.
In 2021, the three hour documentary In the Dark of the Valley depicted mothers advocating for cleanup of the site who have children suffering from cancer believed to be caused by the contamination. This could happen in Australia, if Peter Dutton’s foolish nuclear scheme ever came to pass.
January 9, 2025, Friends of the Earth Australia, https://theaimn.net/los-angeles-fire-a-wake-up-call-for-australia/
The fires currently tearing through Los Angeles are a reminder that Australia can no longer rely on northern hemisphere nations for water-bombing aircraft and firefighters during our summer.
“During our Black Summer, more than 1,000 people came from North America to assist in firefighting efforts. Australia recently sent multiple teams to assist with the fires in North America. This sharing of resources, including aircraft, firefighters and specialists, is how we fight fires in the 21st century” said Friends of the Earth campaigns co-ordinator Cam Walker. “And the fact that fires are raging in mid winter in the USA highlights that the world has entered a new phase – the era of the pyrocene – and that our old ways of fighting fires needs to change.”
Normally Australia leases up to six Large Air Tankers (LATs) which are each allocated to a specific state or territory, but which are shared around the country according to greatest need. While we need up to 7 LATs in a bad fire season, we only own one (which is owned by the NSW Rural Fire Service) and we now lease one year round.
The other planes are leased in after their post season maintenance in the northern hemisphere. They all come from North America and arrive in the country during the traditional ‘shoulder’ season. This shoulder is rapidly disappearing as planes are needed for larger sections of the year in each hemisphere.
“As fire seasons extend in both hemispheres, we face the risk of being unable to secure leases for LATs in coming years”.
There is a clear link between the current fires around LA and climate change. For instance, a 2016 study found climate change enhanced the drying of organic matter and doubled the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States (source: NOAA).
After the Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements that was held to reflect on the lessons of the 2019-20 Black Summer fire season, the commission recommended (Rec 8.1) that the federal government create ‘an Australian-based and registered national aerial firefighting capability, to be tasked according to greatest national need”. In responding to the commission, the federal government decided not pursue the possibility of Australia establishing its own fleet of LATs.
The commission also noted that “extreme weather has already become more frequent and intense because of climate change (and that) further global warming over the next 20 to 30 years is inevitable”.
Mr Walker continued: “In light of all the available science about longer and more intense fire seasons in both hemispheres and the increased difficulty of securing LATs on lease from North America, the federal government must commit to establishing an Australian owned fleet of LATs before the 2025/26 budget”.
The current federal government has taken firefighting capacity seriously and provided significant funding for water-bombing aircraft. With a review of aerial firefighting capability currently underway (expected to report back later this year) now is the right time to acknowledge the reality that we are facing and commit to buying a sovereign fleet of LATs that will be permanently based in Australia.
In addition to buying a fleet of publicly owned LATs, Australia must:
- Stop contributing to even worse global heating, which will continue to lengthen fire seasons and other negative climate change impacts. In the first instance it must stop exporting vast volumes of fossil fuels
- Fast track the development of new technology that will ensure rapid detection of new start fires
- Investigate establishing a national remote area firefighting team which could be deployed as needed to assist state and territory firefighting efforts.
A national remote area firefighting team. As fire threatens World Heritage Areas and national parks across the country, it is time to establish a national remote area firefighting team, which would be funded by the federal government and tasked with supporting existing crews in the states and territories.
Long fire seasons stretch local resources, and sometimes remote areas such as national parks need to be abandoned in order to focus on defending human assets. Having an additional, mobile national team that could be deployed quickly to areas of greatest need would help us protect the wonderful legacy of national parks and World Heritage Areas across the country.
This was recommended by a Senate inquiry after the devastating fires in Tasmania of 2016.
Prelude to an election: Voters beware (Part 1)
January 10, 2025 John Lord, AIM,
“…………………………………………………… 1 Mere days before Christmas, Matt Canavan decided it would be a good time to tell the truth about why the LNP chose a nuclear policy. As he said, it seemed a political ploy or stunt. Senator Pitt decided to leave the Nationals, saying that its leader, David Littleproud, was nothing more than a dill. I agree, but I would have been more dramatic about it. Other members have also quit the party or are retiring. Does any of that register with the voter?
Angus Taylor then spat out a few words that convinced me he needed a manager.
See what you make of this:
“I mean, that’s over time, that’s, you know, to the extent that over time, what you see basic economics, as long as you have good competition policy in place, and we intend to do that, that prices paid reflect costs – underlying costs,” he continued.
“That’s, that’s what you expect to see and that’s economics 101.”
Indeed, when voters see Angus on television, they must see his incompetence and incapacity to be an Australian treasurer or any other minister.
Brett Worthington wrote these words on Facebook:
“Not a plan. Not even a concept of a plan. A sham. It is a shameless con trick meant to divide opinion and stir discontent by projecting a distracting false vision that there is any alternative to renewables replacing coal and that “debate” is needed when there is nothing to discuss. The aim is not to build nuclear power plants but rather to delay the end of coal use to benefit mining billionaires. A bonus for the regressive reactionaries, or perhaps their central aim, is to exacerbate social tensions via bogus ideological dissent. Aka, to keep the heat up in the so-called “culture wars.“
I concur with all his words.
……………………………………………………observe the current political landscape in the United States. There, an unwavering commitment to misleading narratives and persistent propaganda has led to the election of a candidate who prioritises his ambitions and desires over the genuine needs and welfare of the populace………………………………………………………….more https://theaimn.net/prelude-to-an-election-voters-beware/
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 