Energy Technology Engineering Center
The Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC), was a government-owned, contractor-operated complex of industrial facilities located within the 2,850-acre (11.5 km2) Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), Ventura County, California.
The ETEC specialized in non-nuclear testing of components which were designed to transfer heat from a nuclear reactor using liquid metals instead of water or gas.
The LMEC was created by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to provide development and non-nuclear testing of liquid metal reactor components.
[2] The LMEC and the LMIC were established within a western portion of Santa Susana Field Laboratory called Area IV.
[3] The liquid metal components tested included steam generators, pumps, valves, flow meters and a variety of instrumentation.
Two distinct organizations within Atomics International were supported by the DOE at SSFL Area IV: one focused on the development of civilian nuclear power and the other, LMEC/ETEC, was the center of excellence for research and testing of non-nuclear components relating to liquid metals.
The US Department of Energy has assumed responsibility for the identification and, if necessary, cleanup of impacts to the environment resulting from the sodium- or radioactive material-related activities within SSFL Area IV.
Other locations within Area IV (and the remainder of SSFL) have been undergoing an environmental Facility Investigation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act since 1994.
There has been considerable environmental impact investigations underway across SSFL, including at the ETEC sites, since the 1990s to develop cleanup criteria, characterization measurement standards, and methods to use to reach contractual terms of completion.
In the interim, some small site specific cleanups, contaminated surface water flow remediation, and minor habitat restoration efforts have been tried.
For the rest of the SSFL property the R.P.s are Boeing and/or NASA fL, depending on: the Area (I, II, &/or III); contaminant types, and physical toxin location (i.e.: surface soils, aquifers, deep bedrock, etc.
