Radioactive Material/Waste Timeline

The Southeast Disposal Area’s RW-09 radioactive disposal site is physically located about a ¼ mile upstream of the Drinking Water Supply Wells for George AFB, Adelanto, CA, several homes, and the former Victor Valley Country Club.  Unfortunately, the groundwater flows northeast from the SEDA, directly toward these drinking water supply wells.  This created a potential exposure to tens of thousands of civilians, and military [Read More…]

According to the following documents, (Vera , 2015) (Vera , 2016) (Headquarters Field Command, Armed Force Speical Weapons Project, March ‐ June 1953), there were several instances where aircraft had flown around and through surface nuclear weapons testing zones for imagery and sample collection, and then returned back to George Air Force Base for decontamination. We could not find any documentary evidence that [Read More…]

a. Disposition of Solid Wastes. Solid radioactive wastes may be disposed of by burial in the ground, or at sea. In addition, certain items which contain radium such as luminous instrument dials, may be returned to a radium refining company such as the Canadian Uranium and Radium Corporation or the U. S. Radium Corporation, however, if the amounts of such dials do not [Read More…]

In 1971, George AFB was notified by HQ USAF that its radioactive waste burial sites were to be accounted for, fenced off, and clearly marked. They were not. 1. The disposition of solid radioactive waste is strictly controlled in accordance with Technical Order 00-110N-2, “Radioactive Waste Disposal.” The Technical Order provides for the San Antonio Air Material Area to act as the coordinating [Read More…]

A. In the early 1950’s, it was common practice in the United States Air Force to bury radioactive waste. This was merely a reflection of the AEC policy of those times. A technical order (T.O. 00-110A-1) specified procedures to be followed, including identification of the burial site location on appropriate maps and fencing to prevent entry of unauthorized personnel (reference Appendix A). Although [Read More…]

The Air Force failed to disclose to the ATSDR, contractors, public, and Federal & State regulators that John R. Sabol, J.D., P.E. conducted a radiological assessment of the Southeast Disposal Area (SEDA) where he located 18 to 20 55 gallon drums of radioactive waste in 1979. [Read More…]

Because all activities supporting the nuclear defense program are highly classified to protect national security Congress included a provision in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that requires the DOD to withhold information and records about Special Nuclear Material at its Superfund sites.  This requirement creates a unique set of problems for the DOD; Federal, State, and Local regulators when trying [Read More…]

The Air Force has not cited, released, or acknowledged any environmental assessments or remediations performed under the DOD’s Installation Restoration Program. The DOD IRP predates the Air Force IRP by six years. The first report listed in the George AFB Administrative Record is dated 01/01/1982. [Read More…]

Victorville — The existence of a low-level radioactive waste dump near Victorville and the Mojave River was revealed Friday after a telephone tip from an off-road vehicle enthusiast. The dump was apparently unknown to local and county officials, but might be on a state water board list. The approximately one-acre unfenced site is located within the extreme southern boundary of George Air Force [Read More…]

According to three retired Air Force officers, the Air Force intentionally misled the 1988 Defense Secretary’s Commission on Base Realignment and Closure hearings that led to a recommendation to close George Air Force Base in California. [Read More…]

Air Force Base for closure primarily due to degraded training effectiveness, air traffic congestion, and because of excess capacity within the category. The net cost of closure and relocation will be paid back immediately. The Commission expects annual savings to be $70.2 million. The military value of George AFB is lower than other tactical-fighter installations due to its distance to specialized training ranges [Read More…]

George AFB was proposed as a Superfund site on 07/14/89

George AFB was proposed as a Superfund site on 07/14/89 and placed on the National Priorities List (NPL) on 02/21/90. George AFB’s Superfund id is EPA ID: CA2570024453.  

This report identifies two, possibly 3, Weapons Storage Areas (WSA) at George AFB. The significance of these WSA has been outlined in the 8 May 2003 Air Force report, titled Buried Radioactive Weapons Maintenance Waste. EPA – Aerial Photographic Analysis of George Air Force Base – February 1990 – Large PDF

Senator John Glen requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s oversight of the Department of Defense’s use, handling, and disposal of radioactive material. The GAO found that no comprehensive DOD waste disposal program exists, and none of the three services knows the full extent of its low-level radioactive waste disposal problems. As a result, DOD leaves itself open [Read More…]

The DOD/Air Force inserted a provision in the Federal Facility Agreement that allows for the withholding of information and records about radioactive contamination that is the result of the nuclear weapons program. [Read More…]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has 7463 sites in the United States and 952 sites in CA contaminated or potentially contaminated with radioactivity. THIS IS A PRELIMINARY DRAFT (Not Yet Subjected to Peer Review) 2.1.4 Department of Defense (DoD) The U.S. Department of Defense through its Departments of Army (including the Army National Guard), Navy (including the Marine Corps), and Air Force (including the Air National [Read More…]

The Air Force failed to disclose to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs that George Air Force Base, CA had several radiological decontamination centers for aircraft and personnel that were involved the nuclear cloud sampling program in the 1950s-60s. [Read More…]

On December 22, 1992, Senator John Glenn requested that the General Accounting Office (GAO) investigate whether the Department of Defense (DOD) has accounted for all of its radiologically contaminated sites.  The GOA found that the DOD could NOT identify the location, isotopes, or amount of radioactive material disposed of at its bases.  1994-08-24 GAO – Better Data Needed For Radioactively Contaminated Defense Sites (PDF, [Read More…]

The military could run into difficulty in closing bases because a poor job was done keeping track of radioactive waste, Sen. John Glen (D-OH) said yesterday.  DOD does not know how much or what kind of radiation is contaminating American bases, according to a GAO report.  GAO examined DOD’s inventory of 420 low- level radioactive sites on military land but found some sites [Read More…]

WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense is unable to clean up radioactive contamination on military bases because it doesn’t have accurate records of where the waste is, according to congressional investigators. The services have reported 420 sites with low levels of radioactive waste. But investigators from the General Accounting Office said the lists are outdated, inaccurate and incomplete because some sites have been [Read More…]

Lost AEC Records Another recent example of the failure of records to maintain knowledge of waste burial operations pertains to low level nuclear waste buried on U.S. Air Force controlled land under the authority and purview of the AEC.22  This example in no way establishes or suggests that the sites in question pose an immediate or long term risk to human health or [Read More…]

Air Force acknowledged that it routinely withheld information and records about radioactive waste from Federal, State and Local regulators, contractors, and the public. [Read More…]

The U.S. Air Force is investigating whether radioactive waste is buried at more than 80 former and current air bases across the country, including the site of a new federal prison in central California. Air Force health experts believe the radioactive material, generated by nuclear-weapons maintenance in the 1950s and 1960s, [Read More…]

DOD has no policy guiding services and their installations on appropriate actions to address health risks from past exposures, which DOD attributes to the Superfund law not specifically requiring responsible parties to address such risks. [Read More…]

Biggs Airfield/Fort Bliss, TX – In 1966, the Air Force transferred a contaminated WSA and radioactive waste burial site to the Army but did not warn them of potential radiation risk. The radioactive contamination at the site is from the maintenance of nuclear weapons from the 1950s and 1960s. The specific quantity of maintenance waste buried is not known due to incomplete records. According to the Air Force, it disposed of the radioactive waste in accordance with the Atomic Energy Commission and Air Force procedures at the time.
[Read More…]

Headquarters, Air Force Safety Center, Weapons Safety Division, has the responsibility to permit Air Force organizations possessing Section 91b of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 radioactive materials. The primary radioactive materials involved are residuals from: a) nuclear weapons accidents, b) buried nuclear weapons wastes, c) interior surfaces of nuclear weapon storage and maintenance structures, d) AF nuclear reactors, and e) airborne sampling [Read More…]

The term “91(b)” refers to highly classified radioactive material (RAM) covered under Section 91(b) of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954 associated with current nuclear weapons material, legacy nuclear weapons maintenance wastes, residuals from nuclear weapons accident/incidents, some residuals from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, and residuals from nuclear reactor operations. 1.2.3. Installations located in the United States that possess residual 91(b) [Read More…]

Fourteen of the forty Air Force bases that were closed and transferred or are in the process of being transferred to the public are potentially contaminated with highly classified 91 (b) radioactive material (RAM), and seven are in CA. Forty-six Air Force bases reported having radioactive disposal sites and nine of these Air Force bases were former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sites. “Burial [Read More…]

Why did the US EPA, the agency charged with protecting the environment and public health, remove any reference to the radioactive contamination at George Air Force Base from its website? George AFB’s southeast disposal areas (SEDA) radioactive disposal site is only ¼ mile upstream of the supply wells for George AFB, Adelanto, private homes, and ranches, posed a significant threat to the local [Read More…]

If you worked or lived next to the west side of George AFB, worked at an engine test cell or the weapons test bunker, you were likely exposed to unsafe levels of fission byproducts (radioactive dust) from the decontamination of aircraft and equipment used in the open-air nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). This exposure could potentially pose serious health risks [Read More…]

Potential Contaminants of Concern at the former George Air Force Base, CA, “EPA Superfund ID: CA2570024453” Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM), Aviation [Avgas], Benzene, Chlordane, Diesel, Explosives (UXO, MEC) [Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) / Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC)], Gasoline, Heating Oil / Fuel Oil, MTBE / TBA / Other Fuel Oxygenates, Munitions Debris (MD), Nitrate, Other Insecticides [Dieldrin] / Pesticide / Fumigants / Herbicides, Other [Read More…]

Is the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) defrauding atomic veterans and their families of medical care and compensation for the veteran’s service-connected (SC) injuries? Over one hundred thousand military personnel and veterans were exposed to highly classified radioactive material from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons or subjected to DoD or VA’s radiation research. See: military personnel and veterans [Read More…]

John Richard Sabol, J.D., P.E. (21 December 1932 – 3 August 2000) was the Chief Environmental & Contracting Programming / Community Planner / Construction Engineer for George Air Force Base, CA from June 1976 to February 1981. Dr. Sabol Letter # 1 “Dear Frank, In accordance with our past discussions, this letter should serve to summarize the work that I did at George Air [Read More…]

George AFB was one of 35 bases that had Fighter Interceptor Squadrons with air-to-air nuclear weapons for stopping enemy bomber attacks.  Because the early generation nuclear weapons (non-sealed pit) required regular onsite maintenance, a considerable amount of radioactive contamination/waste would be generated during the polonium-beryllium (Po-Be) initiators’ replacement operation.  The Air Force has repeatedly denied that there were any nuclear weapons at George [Read More…]

Burial of Radioactive Waste in the USAF Page 26, section (2), refers to burial of radioactive waste at sea in 2 locations. 1. 72° 43” west longitude: 38° 40” north latitude, 2. 123° 6” west longitude: 37° 40” north latitude “(2) Burial at Sea Burial of radioactive wastes at sea has been authorized. Burial in inland lakes is prohibited. Disposition of considerable quantities of radioactive wastes must [Read More…]

In the 1940s and 50s, it was standard practice to bury radioactive waste, including radioactive waste generated by nuclear weapons maintenance operations, in unlined pits, until the Air Force implemented Technical Order 00-110N-2 in 1958-59.  Because all activities supporting the Nuclear Defense Program are highly classified to protect national security, the location, material, and amount buried in these radioactive waste sites has not [Read More…]

In 1991, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) pleaded guilty to defrauding the government by falsifying testing of samples at DoD Superfund sites.  SAIC was responsible for the radiological testing done at George AFB’s Weapons Storage and Assembly Area (WSA) and radioactive disposal site (RW-09). Air Force acknowledged that it routinely withheld classified information and records about Buried Radioactive Weapons Maintenance Waste at its [Read More…]

Judge: Sailors’ class-action suit can proceed over alleged radiation … Stars and Stripes-Oct 30, 2014 Judge: Sailors’ class-action suit can proceed over alleged radiation … for a variety of ailments from radiation exposure following a nuclear … Two US Sailors Dead After Fukushima Radiation Exposure Center for Research on Globalization-4 hours ago Proper medical care for the victims of radiation exposure [is needed, [Read More…]

If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) requires the Air Force to make full disclosure of known and suspected contaminants when the property is transferred.  Why are the Department of Defense (DoD), Air Force (AF), and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) blocking the release of the Deed Restrictions for Parcel K? Victorville [Read More…]