DuPont, Other Nuclear Contractors Sued for $100 Bln

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

DuPont, Other Nuclear Contractors Sued for $100 Bln 

Spokane, Washington, July 11 (Bloomberg) -- DuPont Co., 
Lockheed Martin Corp. and other military contractors are being 
sued for $100 billion by neighbors of a Washington state nuclear 
bomb-making plant, who claim radioactive releases from the World 
War II-era facility caused thyroid cancers and other illnesses. 

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane seeks class- action 
status for about 10,000 neighbors of the Hanford Nuclear 
Reservation, a facility constructed as part of the ``Manhattan 
Project'' to develop the atomic bomb. 

The facility's operation was ``so reckless, wanton, intentional and 
immoral as to compel a reasonable person in the community to 
declare the same as atrocious, beyond decency, and utterly 
intolerable in a civilized society so as to constitute outrageous 
conduct,'' the suit says. 

`I would like coverage for any future medical expenses,'' said 
plaintiff Ann Tabasinski, who was born shortly after her father 
moved his family to Richland, Washington, in the mid-1940s to 
work at the plant as a physician. 

Tabasinski said she may be at high risk for the kinds of cancers 
and other illnesses that have already killed some family members. 
``I should get some compensation if I should die early,'' she said, 
adding that so far she has suffered no ill effects from living near the 
plant. 

The suit alleges the companies didn't run the plant safely and failed 
to inform the public of the health risks. The suit names 22 causes 
of action, including numerous constitutional violations, negligence, 
trespassing on property through airborne radiation particles and 
fraud. 

DuPont, the lead defendant in the suit and operator of the Hanford 
facility 1942 to 1946, had no immediate comment. 

Riddled With Problems 

Hanford has been riddled for years with problems and controversies 
surrounding its storage and maintenance of radioactive wastes. 

Recently, the U.S. Energy Department fined another defendant in 
the suit, CH2M Hill Hanford Group, $100,000 for faulty welds in 
pipes transferring toxic waste from an unstable underground tank 
farm on the reservation. Corvallis, Oregon-based CH2M Hill, a unit 
of CH2M Hill Companies Ltd., has a Energy Department contract 
to move the waste. 

Federal and state health officials are already conducting a study of 
the potential impact that the Hanford facility has had on the health 
of Richland residents and others living downwind of the plant. 

Tabasinski said she contacted a lawyer after the government sent 
her a questionnaire aimed at helping to determine a range of 
radiation exposure. 

Other defendants in the suit include General Electric Co.; 
Westinghouse Hanford Co., now a subsidiary of British Energy Plc; 
Fluor Daniel Hanford, now a unit of the IT Group Inc.; Boeing Co., 
which bought Rockwell International Corp.'s military and aerospace 
business in 1996; and Atlantic Richfield Co., now a unit of BP 
Amoco Plc. 

Also named as defendants are UNC Nuclear Industries, Batelle 
Memorial Institute, Pacific Northwest Laboratory and Hanford 
Environmental Health Foundation Inc. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Personal Website:  http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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