A recent fire that burned large swaths of Ventura County, Calif., has not damaged the Santa Susana Field Laboratory or the portion of the site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy, a DOE spokesperson said late Friday.
DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center, a 90-acre chunk of Santa Susana where DOE and its forerunner agencies conducted nuclear and liquid metals research from the 1950s until 1980s, “is not close to the Ventura County Mountain Fire nor has been impacted,” the spokesperson said.
“The fire has been moving away from the site, with winds blowing in the typical direction, east to west towards the ocean,” the spokesperson said in response to an Exchange Monitor inquiry.
On Sunday morning, Santa Susana had a temperature of 64 degrees Fahrenheit with winds at three miles per hour, according to its online forecast. The entire lab site, majority-owned by Boeing, is a 2,850-acre site in Simi Valley. NASA administers 450 acres of Santa Susana. Six years ago, the Woolsey fire burned a small area within the sprawling property.
On Sunday, CBS News reported firefighters were making progress against the blaze that charred 20,000 acres and destroyed 130 homes. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Friday to help the state cope with the fire and its aftermath.
Editor’s note: The fourth graph was modified at 6:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 13 to clarify the property’s ownership.
