Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Research center in Simi Hills, United States.
Santa Susana Field Laboratory sprawls across a wide stretch of land in the southeastern Simi Hills, roughly thirty miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The facility divides into several separate areas, each containing different installations and test grounds, spread across dry hillsides and narrow valleys in Ventura County.
The facility opened in 1948 as a testing center for rocket propulsion and later supported the American space program with numerous trials. Operations wound down in 2006, leaving behind a site now shared among different organizations for cleanup efforts.
The site preserves the Burro Flats Painted Cave, where indigenous communities painted symbols and figures on rock walls centuries ago. Hikers who explore the hills can spot these ancient drawings, offering a glimpse of the people who lived here long before modern laboratories arrived.
Access to the grounds remains tightly restricted as multiple organizations carry out remediation work and maintain security controls. Visitors should be aware that the facility is not open to the public and requires special authorization for any entry.
Within the grounds stood the Sodium Reactor Experiment, an early nuclear reactor that tested commercial power generation and provided technical insights for later reactor designs. Today only remnants mark this chapter of nuclear development.
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