FIELD LAB MARKS NEW BEGINNING UNDER BOEING.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Workers at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory marked the arrival of a new owner with cake and celebration Thursday while neighbors wondered what the sale means to the $55 million cleanup of the hilltop aerospace lab.

Gathered around a loading dock during a noontime lunch break, workers tried on bright blue Boeing Co. hats, nibbled cake decorated with a corporate logo and heard taped remarks from their new boss, Boeing Defense and Space Group President Jerry King. Workers said they hope the purchase means new contracts and better job security.

``We're very optimistic,'' said engineer Randall Leonard. ``Boeing seems very interested in keeping us working and helping us expand.''

Boeing completed the $3.2 billion purchase of Rockwell's aerospace-defense operations Wednesday. While some of the 4,100 local workers worry that pink slips will follow the speeches and cake, Leonard said he's convinced the field lab is safe from cuts.

``We're pretty lean already,'' he said. ``We've got good talent here and they're looking for good talent. It has real growth potential for both companies.''

At its height in the late 1960s, more than 6,000 people worked around-the-clock shifts at the high-security laboratory. Today the lab employs 700 workers.

The sale comes at an important time for the laboratory, with Rocketdyne officials in the final stages of a cleanup operation of contamination left by secret nuclear and chemical tests conducted until 1989. Officials say they hope to finish the cleanup in three years.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has assumed oversight of the cleanup program at the lab, which was the site of four decades of nuclear research conducted under Department of Energy contracts. A DOE survey and subsequent testing has revealed no evidence of a health threat.

Boeing will assume the liability for the cleanup, said Paul Sewell, a spokesman for Rocketdyne.

``Boeing is going to be as committed to getting this cleaned up as Rockwell,'' he said. ``Boeing didn't come into this acquisition not knowing what the liabilities are. They are confident they can handle those liabilities.''

Boeing executives soon will know the seriousness of the problem they just inherited. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, are preparing a long-awaited study on mortality rates of workers exposed to dangerous materials at the field lab. A draft version of the study has been available to Rocketdyne officials, but the report will not be made public until January.

Dan Hirsch, an anti-nuclear activist and member of the citizens watchdog group assigned to review the cleanup operation, said the sale gives the company the chance to mend its often-strained relationship with neighbors.

``I hope the new owners make real overtures to the community and demonstrate a real change,'' he said. ``I just worry that new senior management will be completely new to the problems. That could slow us all down a lot.''

It will take more than a corporate merger, Hirsch said, to convince people who live below the laboratory that it does not pose a danger.

``Right now the community has extraordinary distrust with what goes on up the hill,'' he said. ``If they're just changing the hats on the people who remain, that distrust will remain.''

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Photo: (Color) Employees at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory line up for cake Thursday to celebrate Boeing's $3.2 billion acquisition of Rockwell's aerospace-defense operations. The workers said they hope the purchase means new contracts and better job security.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News