DOE to halt Santa Susana cleanup

The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday that it will stop its controversial cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Lab and conduct a long-awaited comprehensive environmental review of the former nuclear research site. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The decision to abide by a recent court order means the department has stopped demolition of the last two buildings at the site for at least two years while the agency prepares an environmental impact statement.

A federal court judge in May said the department's cleanup plan for the site broke the law, and he ordered the agency to complete a detailed analysis of contamination at the site and how it will be removed.

Longtime lab watchdogs lauded the department's decision to comply with the judge's ruling.

Also, on Thursday, federal lawsmakerm frustrated that hundreds of sick former Santa Susana Field Lab employees have been denied benefits under a program to aid former nuclear workers called for a new law to help workers and their families get compensation. Daily News.

Signed into law in 2000, the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Act pledged billions of dollars to government employees who got sick from their Cold War-era jobs.