Decades after Santa Susana Field Lab neighbors first asked which way the wind was blowing during a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown at the site, lab officials have discovered the missing meteorological records. The newly found data are expected to be vital in helping lab watchdogs and researchers more accurately estimate where radiation released during the meltdown could have moved during the accident and what communities might have been exposed. Last year, a state-funded study determined that radiation released during the accident could have triggered 260 cancers in the area. But that analysis was stunted by the lack of data from the incident, including weather information. “If you don’t know which way the wind is blowing, you don’t know which populations were affected,” said Jan Beyea, who conducted the analysis and is planning to revise the report using the recently located weather data. AD Quality Auto 360p 720p 1080p Top articles1/5READ MOREPettersson scores another winner, Canucks beat Kings“I will have a much better idea of how many people were exposed.” Still, the Boeing Co. – which owns the lab and found the weather reports – has repeatedly said all radiation was contained inside the reactor during the accident. And with no release of dangerous contaminants, the wind data provide no new insight, spokeswoman Blythe Jameson said Tuesday. “While the information does fill some historical meteorological data gaps, it does not change the understanding of what occurred at the time, that the incident did not pose a threat to community health, then or since,” Jameson said. Environmentalists and neighbors around the lab in the hills between Chatsworth and Simi Valley have never believed Boeing, the previous lab owners, or the Department of Energy’s description of the accident. And the fact that officials said they had wind information only going back to 1960 fueled their long-standing disbelief. Records requested Longtime lab activists have repeatedly requested wind-direction records ever since they learned about the reactor’s partial meltdown in 1989 after a Daily News report. “I can’t tell you how many times we asked for it and how ridiculous we thought it was that we weren’t getting it,” said Barbara Johnson, who lives below the lab in Santa Susana Knolls. “These are rocket scientists and for them to not have wind data? Give me a break.” State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, has long advocated for strict cleanup efforts at the lab and noted that the community has long been suspicious that the company was deliberately withholding the data. “Now I guess what they’re saying is, `Oh, we actually have 4 gabillion pieces of data,”‘ she said. Kuehl, however, said now that a scheduled deadline for the cleanup at the lab has been met and the process is under way, she believes it’s more critical to focus on getting that job completed. “I don’t want to get stuck saying, `Why didn’t you give this to us before,”‘ she said. Boeing, which bought the lab in the 1990s, said it found the weather data during a review of more than a million historical records at the lab, and sent the information to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The agency had requested the weather data in 1999 during a review of whether the community around the lab was exposed to dangerous contamination. Weather caveat At the time, the agency said it was unlikely that any lab neighbors would have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation from the site – with the following caveat: “However, because there has been no monitoring of past airborne releases, air dispersion modeling of past releases using site-specific meteorological data would improve the current assessment of potential past exposures.” Officials with the agency could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Jameson with Boeing said the company gave the agency all the weather records it had at the time. “The thing is, personnel changed over the years and personnel currently at the facility were unaware that this specific weather data existed,” she said. She said the company is now closing the lab and emptying offices and filing cabinets. “There has to be an understanding that with the history and length of operations, there is a considerable amount of documentation,” she said. Those records include charts on hourly wind directions collected at the Sodium Reactor Experiment from 1952 through 1963. The Sodium Reactor Experiment was the nation’s first commercial nuclear power plant and it was highlighted on Edward R. Murrow’s TV show “See It Now” as it delivered electricity to the tiny town of Moorpark. Reactor meltdown In July 1959, there was a problem in the reactor that caused the protective metal casing around the nuclear fuel rods to melt, releasing radioactive gas. While the Energy Department and Boeing have said that nothing but harmless inert gases were released from the reactor, researchers analyzing the potential impact of the accident have used technical modeling to assert that as much as 300 times more radiation was released than from the infamous Three Mile Island accident. The Santa Susana Field Lab Advisory Panel, which was funded by $150,000 from the state Legislature, released the exposure analysis last year. Based on estimates of how much iodine-131 and cesium-137 were released, the analysis figured 260 cancers would have been caused by the exposure – although that number could be a lot less or a lot more – up to 1,800 cases. With the new weather data, the modeling will be revised. It’s unclear how long that could take. Advisory panel member Dan Hirsch said he was frustrated Boeing had the weather data all along. “We didn’t know which way the wind was blowing and wind speed at the time of the accident, so we had to presume a range of releases,” Hirsch said. “Now we can narrow that.” But, Beyea added, researchers still don’t have key details on the accident itself or exactly when after the partial meltdown contamination might have been released. “Rest assured,” Beyea said. “There will still be uncertainty.” Staff Writer Lisa Friedman contributed to this report. kerry.cavanaugh@dailynews.com 213-978-0390160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. 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