Landmark Environmental Law Decision

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

Federal Court Rules in Favor of Union OCAW and Environmental Group
Challenge to 250 Million Dollar Radioactive Metals Recycling Project at Oak
Ridge Nuclear Facility

In Landmark Environmental Law Decision

WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- In a landmark environmental ruling, a 
United States District Court for the District of
Columbia has ruled that a nuclear workers union and one of the nation's leading 
environmental groups are entitled to proceed
against the United States Department of Energy (``DOE'') and its contractor in 
a lawsuit which calls on the DOE to comply with
the law and perform an Environmental Impact Statement (``EIS''). The plaintiffs 
took court action because DOE had failed to
perform an EIS even though it was undertaking a multimillion project which 
might-recycle radioactive metal for use in everyday
consumer products. 

The suit brought by the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union 
(``OCAW'') and the Natural Resources Defense
Council (``NRDC'') maintained that DOE failed to comply with the National 
Environmental Policy Act (``NEPA''), which required
that DOE conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (``EIS'') prior to 
executing a $238 million contract with British Nuclear
Fuel (``BNFL'') to decontaminate and recycle radioactive metals in three huge 
gaseous diffusion facilities at the DOE's Oak
Ridge, Tennessee site. These facilities enriched uranium for weapons 
production. With the end of the cold war, the facilities were
shut down and are now slated for decontamination and decommissioning. 

In initiating the lawsuit, OCAW pointed out that the DOE/BNFL was proceeding 
with plans to recycle radioactively contaminated
nuclear weapons complex materials for commercial use even where -- as in the 
case of radioactively contaminated nickel -- there
are currently no Federal or state standards that would limit the permissible 
amount of volumetric contamination in consumer
products made from the material. OCAW and NRDC stated that, in the 
absence of any standards, there can be no assurance to
citizens and consumers about the effect on health and safety of, for example, 
batteries, tableware, or children's braces made from
the recycled metals. 

DOE and BNFL argued that, even if the law required DOE to perform an EIS, 
OCAW and the NRDC had no right to court relief
because the recycling would be part of a Superfund cleanup and thereby was 
immune from court challenge when it is ongoing.
Judge Gladys Kessler rejected the DOE/BNFL Motion to dismiss the case, 
finding, among other things that the recycling was not
integral to the cleanup. The court scheduled a status conference for June 23 to 
discuss further proceedings in the case. 

Mike Church, President of OCAW local 3-288 (Oak Ridge, TN), and lead 
plaintiff in the case, stated, ``OCAW and NRDC have
been vindicated in their assertion that the Department of Energy and its 
contractor BNFL cannot run roughshod over public
health, safety, and socioeconomic concerns of the workforce.'' 


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Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax:    (714) 668-3111
  
sandyfl@earthlink.net
sperle@icnpharm.com

ICN Dosimetry Website:
http://www.dosimetry.com

Personal Website:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -

The opinions expressed are solely, absolutely, positively, definitely those of the author, and NOT my employer