This was stuffed in the first section of today's Washington Post
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Nuclear Arms Plant Sued
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 31, 2000; Page A27
Eleven workers who became ill after a smoky 1997 nuclear weapons factory explosion are accusing plant contractors in a lawsuit of lying about the accident and deliberately blocking them from learning whether they had been exposed to deadly plutonium.
The suit, to be filed today in federal court, describes a string of missteps--from missing medical supplies to a doctor's refusal to perform routine screening tests--that workers say left them confused and frightened nearly three years after the accident at the U.S. Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash.
After complaining to managers, the workers allegedly were subjected to repeated vandalism and harassment, according to a draft of the lawsuit. One worker had medical records stolen from his house, and another found the plucked carcasses of crows in his front yard.
"These workers have to live with the illnesses they have, and with the uncertainty about the radiation that may be ticking away inside them," said Hugh Plunkett, a Minneapolis lawyer for the workers. "But when they tried to find out what was wrong they were literally treated like enemies of the state."
The civil suit accuses plant operator Fluor Daniel Corp. of fraudulently concealing details about the accident, and says the company's actions inflicted emotional distress and increased the workers' risk for developing cancers.
An independent medical investigation last year concluded the workers suffered from respiratory and skin ailments as well as genetic abnormalities "consistent with exposure . . . to low-level radioactive or radiomimetic chemicals." The finding prompted one female worker to abandon plans to have children, the suit says.
Fluor Daniel had not been served with the suit yesterday and declined comment on the allegations. Earlier investigations by state officials and the U.S. Department of Energy faulted the company for lapses in safety procedures, and prompted an apology to the workers two years ago by a top Fluor Daniel official.
The chemical explosion on May 14, 1997, occurred in a former plutonium processing facility within the sprawling Hanford complex, a 620-square-mile nuclear fuel factory that is now the site of the nation's costliest environmental cleanup. The plant is owned by the federal government; the workers are employees of Fluor Daniel.
The 11 workers were in nearby buildings at the time of the blast, but all were later engulfed in a plume of smoke and fumes that caused several to become immediately ill. Some developed blisters and others suffered nausea and headaches, the lawsuit says.
"The next day, I couldn't even get out of bed," Joe Hennessy, a former Hanford electrician who is one of the plaintiffs, said in an telephone interview. "We've all had a hard time, and some of us still are having problems."
But in the hours and days following the accident, company officials thwarted the workers' attempts to learn what they been exposed to, the lawsuit alleges. Some examples cited in the complaint:
* Soon after the blast, workers requested a "nasal smear" test, a standard procedure that can detect exposure to radioactive chemicals. But when workers reported to another building for testing, crucial testing materials were inexplicably missing from the supply cabinet. An inventory of the cabinet a week earlier had found it fully stocked.
* As a crude substitute for a normal nasal smear test, technicians obtained mucus samples from the workers using a pencil and medical gauze. Within hours, the workers and the public were told the tests showed no exposure to radiation. Yet, company officials later acknowledged the gauze samples had been locked inside a safe and never properly tested until a month after the incident, the suit contends.
* On the night of the accident, the workers were told to drive to a local hospital, where they were met by plant officials and doctors in radiation-protection gear. But despite repeated requests, the workers were refused blood and urine tests for radiation exposure. The next day, several workers sought the tests at a different clinic but were again refused.
"The contractors didn't want to know the truth and they made sure the truth was covered up," said Plunkett, the attorney. "Nothing else explains the total lack of follow-up for these people after their exposure."
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Health Physicist
National Institutes of Health
Radiation Safety Branch, Building 21
21 Wilson Drive, MSC 6780
Bethesda, MD 20892-6780
Phone: 301-496-5774 Fax: 301-496-3544
jjacobus@ors.od.nih.gov (W)
jenday1@email.msn.com (H)