Three Mile Island Suits Reinstated

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

FYI...Mike...mcbaker@lanl.gov


>Wednesday November 3 3:37 AM ET
>Three Mile Island Suits Reinstated
>By GENARO C. ARMAS Associated Press Writer
>
>PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal appeals court has allowed nearly 2,000 people
>to revive lawsuits over health problems they blame on the 1979 accident at
>the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
>
>A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday
>that a lower court judge erred three years ago when she threw out the cases
>stemming from the worst nuclear accident in the nation's history.
>
>That's little consolation for Amelia Beck, who says she has no plans to
>revive her late husband's lawsuit.
>
>Earl Beck was one of plaintiffs who said their illnesses stemmed from the
>meltdown at the plant in central Pennsylvania. He was diagnosed with
>lymphatic cancer in 1983 and died in December.
>
>``I don't plan to sue anyone for anything,'' she said. ``Now he's gone. We
>could have used (the money) but I'm not going to worry about that now.''
>
>The 3-month-old Unit 2 reactor was generating electricity at 97 percent of
>its capacity in the early hours of March 28, 1979, when the control boards
>flashed the first warnings of the only general emergency ever declared at a
>U.S. nuclear plant.
>
>Between one third and one half of the reactor's uranium-filled core melted
>in the first hours of the accident. The ensuing cleanup took nearly 12 years
>and cost $973 million.
>
>Beck was 72 when U.S. District Chief Judge Sylvia Rambo ruled in 1996 that
>there was insufficient evidence to link the plaintiffs' various claims of
>cancer and birth defects to exposure to the radiation leak at the plant.
>
>She threw out the cases of 2,000 plaintiffs based on testimony during a
>``mini-trial'' or a test hearing of a group of 10 ``typical'' plaintiffs.
>
>In Tuesday's ruling, Circuit Court Judge Theodore McKee said the remaining
>plaintiffs should have been given a chance to object to Rambo's decision.
>The ruling allowed all but the 10 plaintiffs involved in the test hearing to
>revive their cases.
>
>``It is a victory and defeat for both sides,'' said plaintiffs' attorney
>Arnold Levin. ``But for the 10 people whose case was thrown out, I feel
>sorry for them. As for the others, we will get back to their cases and
>pursue them.''
>
>Tom Kauffman, a spokesman for TMI, declined to comment, saying that
>officials there had not yet seen the decision.
>
>*    *    *    *    *    *
>
>The court opinion is found at http://pacer.ca3.uscourts.gov/
>
>

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