`HOT' WATER AT SANTA SUSANA HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVITY FOUND IN GROUNDWATER AT ROCKETDYNE LAB.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

High levels of radioactivity were found for the first time in groundwater at the Santa Susana Field Lab where nuclear reactors were tested beginning in the late 1940s, federal officials said Wednesday.

Officials said the contamination does not pose a risk to the public or neighbors of the facility located in the Simi Hills above Chatsworth, but longtime critics of the operations and Department of Energy cleanup efforts questioned why the radioactive material was only showing up now after a 15-year cleanup effort.

The Daily News first disclosed in 1989 that a DOE survey had found massive radioactive and chemical contamination problems at the lab, triggering the effort.

`They have told us over and over and over again that they have no radioactivity showing up above a trip level at the site,'' said Dan Hirsch, president of the nuclear watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap. ``(The public) should be concerned about what else may be there that Boeing and the Department of Energy hasn't found yet.''

Groundwater samples taken in March show tritium at 80,000 picocuries per liter, or four times the national drinking water limit. The contamination was caused by nuclear research conducted at the lab.

``We have not seen levels of tritium at these concentrations before,'' said Mike Lopez, DOE project manager. The federal government funded nuclear testing at the lab, which was run by Rocketdyne, now a division of Boeing, from the 1950s through the 1980s and is now cleaning the property for future uses, which could include homes.

``We've been reviewing our data to see if there are any gaps in what we know. We found tritium. To me, it shows our process is working,'' Lopez said.

Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen with a half-life of 12 years, will degrade and meet drinking water standards in 25 years. It has been found before at low levels around the lab.

In 1991, it was found at the Brandeis Bardin Institute, a Jewish retreat and camp on the Simi Valley edge of the lab. The highest level was 5,400 picocuries per liter, well below the EPA's limit of 20,000 picocuries per liter.

In 1993, lab officials found elevated levels of tritium, along with strontium 90, cesium 137 and plutonium 238, in soil samples from Brandies Bardin taken near the lab property line. The readings again were considered low enough to not pose a health threat.

Officials with the Boeing Co., which owns the lab, said the tritium findings should be no surprise.

Earlier tests were conducted at the edge of the lab property or on neighboring property and the results always showed low levels of tritium.

The higher tritium levels were found after drilling three new wells near the old nuclear reactor site. One well showed tritium and two wells showed hits of chemical contamination, including trichloroethylene at 15 times the national limit.

``We're more likely to find higher concentrations closer to the source,'' said Majelle Lee with Boeing. ``Again there is not an exposure to people. It's not used as drinking water and there's additional work to be done to create the characterization of it.''

The Department of Energy will hold a public meeting to discuss the tritium findings at 6:30 p.m. June 3 at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center at 5005 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com