nuclear-news

Cancer caused by uranium fuel processing plant, claims big lawsuit

In recent court filings, plaintiffs provided many tragic stories of living in the Apollo and Parks area in the shadow of the nuclear sites and being diagnosed with cancer.

Mega-lawsuit claims nuke contamination in Armstrong Trib Live News, Mary Ann Thomas Gateway Newspapers , May 17, 2012 The nearly 100 plaintiffs alleging death, cancer and other illnesses from radioactive emissions from two defunct Armstrong County nuclear fuels plants are awaiting a trial date for what is likely to be a second set of a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit.

The defendants, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group and Atlantic
Richfield, operated a uranium fuel-processing plant founded by the
Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) in Apollo and a
plutonium plant in Parks Township from 1957 to 1986.
The plaintiff’s attorney Jonathan Orent, an attorney with in Motley
Rice’s Rhode Island office, said that the trial in federal court in
Pittsburgh could be underway by the end of the year. The attorneys are
working with Pittsburgh law firm, Goldberg, Persky and White.

“We represent a lot of folks who were seriously injured through the
exposure of materials released by these facilities,” Orent said.
“We’re eager for them to have their day in court so they can move on
with their lives.”

Attorneys for the defendants, Paul Hastings’ office in San Francisco,
did not return phone calls for this article……..
Motley Rice recently submitted a series of studies alleging dangerous,
cancer-causing emissions from the plants.

Radiation and heath experts focused on the potential health damage
caused by “accidental” plant releases that were allegedly thousands of
times higher than regulatory limits at that time.

But the expert reports also acknowledged that the amount of historical
data is incomplete.

In recent court filings, plaintiffs provided many tragic stories of living in the Apollo and Parks area in the shadow of the nuclear sites and being diagnosed with cancer.

Plaintiffs include the late Kenneth Baustert of Apollo who was
diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2008, according to a report
written by James Melius, an occupational physician and epidemiologist.

Baustert’s cancer spread to his brain and he died in 2010.

He grew up in Apollo and worked as a machinist at a company next door
to the Apollo NUMEC plant. He went on to help raze the Apollo and
Parks nuclear fuel processing plants.

The lawsuit claims that as a child, Baustert had been exposed to
substantial amount of enriched radioactive uranium from the Apollo
plant.
According to the lawsuit: “While living as a child in Apollo near the
Apollo nuclear facility, Mr. Baustert would have been exposed to
substantial amounts of enriched radioactive uranium and other
radioactive materials emitted from the Apollo facility during this
period of significant nuclear production at the facility.

“He would have inhaled these emissions and also inadvertently ingested
them from contact with the contaminated air emissions and dust from
the facility.”….
http://triblive.com/news/1811236-74/apollo-nuclear-baron-cancer-lawsuit-court-filed-motley-rice-claims

May 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Legal, Uranium, USA