[CTRL] Richardson Orders Probe of Ky. Uranium Plant

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

Richardson Orders Probe of Ky. Uranium Plant

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 9, 1999; Page A1

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson ordered an immediate investigation
yesterday into reports that thousands of unsuspecting employees at a
Kentucky uranium plant were exposed on the job to cancer-causing plutonium.
Richardson said he would meet with workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion
Plant and would request a National Academy of Sciences study to probe the
links between worker illnesses and exposure to radioactive materials that
occurred over decades at the federally owned plant.

He also called for expanding a newly created program to bring health
screening and medical treatment to thousands of workers who may have been
put in harm�s way at Paducah and similar facilities that were part of the
government�s nuclear weapons complex.

�I have long maintained that we must correct the sins of the past by
compensating workers who have been medically damaged,� Richardson said in an
interview. �I don�t want this to be known as the department of excuses for
not dealing with workers who have been harmed.�

His remarks came after The Washington Post reported that workers at the
Paducah plant had been unwittingly exposed to plutonium and other
radioactive metals that entered the plant over decades in shipments of used
uranium from military nuclear reactor fuel. The report was based in part on
sealed court documents filed as part of a lawsuit by workers and an
environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council. The suit alleges
that government contractors concealed evidence of the exposure for decades
while allowing plutonium and other hazards to spread into the environment.

The workers also allege that former plant managers allowed contaminated
waste to be dumped into a state-owned wildlife area and a landfill not
licensed for hazardous waste. They further contend that radioactively
contaminated gold and other valuable metals may have been shipped out of the
plant without being properly tested.

Thomas Cochran, a nuclear expert with the NRDC who reviewed conditions at
the plant, said health and safety practices there were the worst �outside
the former Soviet Union.� Former plant operators had not been served with
the suit and declined to comment. The whistleblowers and their Washington
attorney, Joseph Egan, said they also could not comment because of the judge
�s seal on the case.

Energy officials sent a team to Paducah for an initial probe after the
documents were first filed in June, Richardson confirmed. �They did not
uncover any imminent threats . . . but we are continuing to investigate
these concerns,� Richardson said.

The expanded investigation he announced yesterday would seek to uncover
�what actually occurred, who was responsible and what must be done to assure
that it never happens again,� he said.

Among the specific measures:

Top Energy Department officials will be dispatched to Paducah this week to
check compliance with environmental and safety regulations. The agency�s
Office of General Counsel will assess whether former contractors, including
Lockheed Martin Corp. or Union Carbide Corp., had fulfilled their
responsibilities to protect workers and the environment.

Besides the health study by the National Academy of Sciences� Institute of
Medicine, the Energy Department will institute a medical surveillance and
screening program for employees. A screening of former Paducah workers is
just beginning as part of the Former Worker Program, a congressionally
ordered study of past exposures of employees in the U.S. nuclear complex.

The department�s fiscal 2000 budget request will be reassessed and revised
as necessary to include money to probe and rectify environmental and health
concerns at the government�s uranium enrichment plants.

Richardson will ask the White House to expand a newly created program to
provide millions of dollars in medical screening and other benefits to
Energy Department workers who were exposed to beryllium, a highly toxic
metal used in nuclear weapons. �These actions are warranted given the
concerns raised . . . and I will not rest until these issues are fully dealt
with and any injured workers are fairly compensated,� Richardson said.

Paducah workers were exposed to plutonium through shipments of contaminated
uranium that arrived at the plant from 1953 to 1976, a period when national
security priorities often surmounted concerns over risks to workers and the
environment. The plutonium shipments stopped, but contaminants remain
spattered over hundreds of acres of buildings and grounds. Workers did not
learn of the problems until at least 1990, and some contend they were never
told.

The U.S. Enrichment Corp., a government-chartered private corporation that
took over management of the plant this year, contends that all significantly
contaminated areas have been cleaned up or marked with warning signs.

Although no comprehensive study of worker medical histories has been
conducted, current and former workers at the plant have linked past
exposures to a string of cancers and other diseases.

Richardson said although many of the exposures at Paducah were historical,
the government bears responsibilities for those who may have been injured.

�Even though it was the 1950s and everyone was gung-ho,� he said, �it doesn�
t mean that you can forget about workers who have been made sick.�

--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind or thunder, who
want to see the fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that
faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this
book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and
dates"
    -Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ: 9815080   Operator Taliesin_2 of #SacredNemeton on IRC PaganPaths

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