In the Dark of the Valley

This was a fascinating expose of unchecked nuclear power failures and the dangers to which we may all be exposed one day.

The only problem with this documentary is that throughout most of the film, the overdubbed music was so loud it was distracting and completely unnecessary.

This would have been a powerful documentary if only fully watchable, since a good portion of the interviews and presentations are muffled and barely audible, thanks to a hugely irritating loud music which drowned the most important parts.

Over 60 years after the Rocketdyne nuclear leak, a large portion of the NW San Fernando Valley area, about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles, remains radioactive. The massive 2018 Woolsey fire only further contaminated the grounds, and spread out nuclear compounds and harmful chemicals. The clusters of rare cancers have been documented - in October 2006, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel, made up of independent scientists and researchers from around the United States, concluded that based on available data and computer models, contamination at the facility resulted in an estimated 260 cancer related deaths.

The site's owner, the Boeing company, as well as NASA and several of the state's and federal regulatory agencies keep avoiding the responsibility, and are proposing only a partial cleanup which would leave about 84% of the ground contamination still present.

I am a believer in space being important to our future, and have always been a big NASA supporter. I was shocked and dumbfounded to see all of the "slimy" things that the aerospace companies, AND NASA, had undertaken to continuously avoid doing what was right, not only to properly provide the appropriate monetary support to the families impacted by their negligent behavior, but even worse, all the political "crap" that the (involved) aerospace companies, and NASA, have engaged in order to try to continuously avoid any responsibility for cleaning up the radiation mess that still exists in this area of California, to this day.

Everyone should see this film. The corporate and government malfeasance demonstrated by all of the parties involved will dumbfound you.

Sadly a documentary, no matter how good, will almost never have the impact on society that a "major motion picture" can have if it has major starring actors. Perhaps some movie studio will have the guts to give it a go. I doubt it. To many powerful people they would upset is my guess. As with any locations where highly radioactive material is used and stored there is always a danger of leakage, whether by accident or other means such as terrorism or even malicious employees. One only has to look at the current event in Europe to see the dangers. And yet people are hoodwinked into believing that nuclear material is safe and humans can store the waste material safely for hundreds of thousands of years. Not likely.

This is well worth seeing. It shows how a group of "cancer mothers" focuses attention-and blame for their children's illnesses and deaths-on the contaminated grounds and groundwater of the former Rocketdyne site just outside of Los Angeles.

My only issue, and it's a big one, is that the voices in nearly every "talking head" section are drowned out by the loud original music. I lost so much information I really wanted to hear.