Each August, we are reminded of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. Sometimes, if we have a historical perspective, we also think about July 16, 1945, the day our planet and every living thing on it or in it entered the atomic age — the day the first atomic weapon exploded in the New Mexico desert.

For those of us who live in Ventura County, Japan is far away, even in our global age. And New Mexico, though closer geographically, isn't a place we can drive to in an afternoon. Simi Valley is another matter. It is very close; and it is our local connection to the nuclear age, though few of us know it.

Very rarely do any of us think about July 12-26, 1959, 14 days when a research reactor at the Rocketdyne plant in the Santa Susana Hills experienced a partial meltdown — in the longest nuclear accident in the world, and what has been called worst nuclear accident in the United States.

Though I have been working on nuclear issues for more than 20 years, I only found out about this accident when my friend Carmen Ramirez handed me a copy of California Lawyer in April 2006.

The cover bore an image of a large, greenish skeleton looming over suburban homes and people outside looking up at it. The headline read: "FALLOUT: The legacy of the nation's forgotten nuclear meltdown." Inside, 12 pending lawsuits were listed. I was stunned. I said to her, "How can we forget about it if we never knew about it?"

Not knowing about nuclear stories, even ones less horrific than this, is, unfortunately, a familiar legacy of the nuclear age, and particularly of the Cold War. When the Cold War ended, stories and information suppressed for decades were not suddenly revealed. They come out as a result of journalists such as Kathy Braidhill and magazines that are courageous enough to print them. This story struck me with unusual force because I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, not 20 miles away from this plant, and on many summer nights stood and watched the rocket tests soar into the evening sky like fireworks.

Holding this magazine in my hands, I knew that I had been exposed to whatever was released during those 14 days in July.

Arjun Makhijani, nuclear physicist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said in a radio interview about the accident, "Chernobyl, Sellafield, Santa Susana the three worst nuclear accidents in the world in order. But who has ever heard of Santa Susana?"

The people of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel know this information, and have been fighting for more than 25 years to get the truth out. As a result of their efforts, two studies of workers at the plant were completed by UCLA, and last October, at long last, the community report so long sought by them, was completed and released to the public (www.ssflpanel.org). The effort is a shining example of democracy in action.

As the Web site says: "The SSFL Advisory Panel was established by local legislators in the early 1990s to oversee independent scientific studies of potential health effects from the Rocketdyne nuclear reactor and rocket testing site in the hills above Simi Valley and Chatsworth, first of the SSFL workers and then of the neighboring communities."

I encourage everyone in our county to read this report, which fills a huge gap in our local history, and to make comments to the panel, which will consider them before issuing its final report Oct. 15.

Knowing about this report, I was struck by the ironic coincidence of a public comment period, announced by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, on one of its reports about the Santa Susana site. Originally set for June 26 through July 25, it has now been extended through Aug. 25.

Note that the original period coincided with the 48th anniversary dates of the partial nuclear meltdown.

If you read the Notice of Public Comment on The Draft Group 6 RCRA Facility Investigation Report of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Hills, Ventura County, you may be deterred by the lack of clarity of the notice and by the immense size of the report.

Don't be.

What is needed is a thorough epidemiological study of the site and the community, a goal cited by the SSFL Advisory Panel in its report. Such a study is complex and expensive and often resisted by the experts and institutions able to complete them.

If all you do in submitting your comments is to request such a study, you will be doing our community a great service. One of the conclusions of the SSFL Advisory Panel Report states: "The best measures available for providing protection from possible future health impacts associated with continued contamination from SSFL come from a concerned, committed, educated and persistent community. These studies were triggered by the community, and we hope they will be helpful to the community."

The nuclear age opened the Pandora's Box of the atom and, try as we might, we cannot put back what has been released. But we can begin to take responsibility for what we have unleashed.

Let us remember the future generations, the ones who will live in Ventura County seven generations from now. Let us commit ourselves together to finding out the truth about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, cleaning it up, conducting a thorough epidemiological study and sharing the information with other affected communities.

— Pamela S. Meidell, of Oxnard, is director of the Atomic Mirror (www.atomicmirror.org) and president of Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (www.coastalalliance.com).