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North Carolina's top elected officials have agreed the state should pay another quarter-million dollars for outside lawyers and expert witnesses for three pending lawsuits. Council of State members approved yesterday giving $253,000 from a special fund to the state Justice Department. Attorney General Roy Cooper said the money will pay invoices for defending North Carolina against lawsuits filed by other states involving a low-level radioactive waste compact and the Catawba River basin. And Cooper said the state's lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority already is leading to reduced pollution from TVA power plants. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry voted no because she's not persuaded all expenses are justified. The council has authorized more than $4 million for the three lawsuits over the years.

North Carolina's top elected officials have agreed the state should pay another quarter-million dollars for outside lawyers and expert witnesses for three pending lawsuits. Council of State members approved yesterday giving $253,000 from a special fund to the state Justice Department. Attorney General Roy Cooper said the money will pay invoices for defending North Carolina against lawsuits filed by other states involving a low-level radioactive waste compact and the Catawba River basin. And Cooper said the state's lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority already is leading to reduced pollution from TVA power plants. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry voted no because she's not persuaded all expenses are justified. The council has authorized more than $4 million for the three lawsuits over the years.

Conscripts Were Exposed To High Levels Of Radiation Former soldiers suffering from radiation poisoning are suing the Chilean treasury and Nuclear Energy Commission for US$85 million. The men were exposed to high levels of radiation whilst guarding the same nuclear facility in Santiago in the late 1980's. The Soldiers were all guarding the same nuclear facility in Santiago between 1988-1989. Over 60 ex-guards of the La Reina Nuclear Reactor and Research Center cited various health problems in filing their lawsuit against the state. The men in question secured the facility as part of their national military service duties between 1988-1989 and show symptoms of dangerous over-exposure to radiation. The case presented by the Santiago law firm Alfredo Morgado reads: "This petition demands compensation from the state on behalf of the victims who have died or continue to suffer as a result of radiation poisoning." The lawsuit also points to the "non-existent help" the government has offered to the men. Amongst the medical conditions cited are various forms of cancer, bone and nerve degeneration, digestive problems, migraines and diarrhea. Some of the men also claim compensation for medical conditions and congenital defects allegedly passed on to their children. Among the petitioners are the families of soldiers who died as a result of the contamination. Guillermo Cofre died in 1989 after being asked to clean up a nuclear waste spill with a towel. "His military uniform had melted, almost as if he had fallen in acid," his father said. Both Guillermo and his companion on the task Luis Gomez Naranjo died of leukemia within 18 months of the accident. The families of the deceased are suing for over US$3.5 million each, while the remaining petitioners are each claiming between US$1 to 1.5 million for current and future health complications. The case is being heard at the Santiago Court of Appeals. The lawsuit comes at a time of increased lobbying efforts o

Conscripts Were Exposed To High Levels Of Radiation Former soldiers suffering from radiation poisoning are suing the Chilean treasury and Nuclear Energy Commission for US$85 million. The men were exposed to high levels of radiation whilst guarding the same nuclear facility in Santiago in the late 1980's. The Soldiers were all guarding the same nuclear facility in Santiago between 1988-1989. Over 60 ex-guards of the La Reina Nuclear Reactor and Research Center cited various health problems in filing their lawsuit against the state. The men in question secured the facility as part of their national military service duties between 1988-1989 and show symptoms of dangerous over-exposure to radiation. The case presented by the Santiago law firm Alfredo Morgado reads: "This petition demands compensation from the state on behalf of the victims who have died or continue to suffer as a result of radiation poisoning." The lawsuit also points to the "non-existent help" the government has offered to the men. Amongst the medical conditions cited are various forms of cancer, bone and nerve degeneration, digestive problems, migraines and diarrhea. Some of the men also claim compensation for medical conditions and congenital defects allegedly passed on to their children. Among the petitioners are the families of soldiers who died as a result of the contamination. Guillermo Cofre died in 1989 after being asked to clean up a nuclear waste spill with a towel. "His military uniform had melted, almost as if he had fallen in acid," his father said. Both Guillermo and his companion on the task Luis Gomez Naranjo died of leukemia within 18 months of the accident. The families of the deceased are suing for over US$3.5 million each, while the remaining petitioners are each claiming between US$1 to 1.5 million for current and future health complications. The case is being heard at the Santiago Court of Appeals. The lawsuit comes at a time of increased lobbying efforts o

A group created to protest American Ecology's plan to bring extremely low-level nuclear waste to its Owyhee County burial facility has closed up shop after the company filed a defamation lawsuit. Rexburg-based Citizens for a Clean Idaho has taken its Web site down and failed to respond to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff report that discounted its claims about Westinghouse Electric's request for a federal exemption to ship 50,000 tons of soil and debris contaminated with extremely low levels of radioactive material to American Ecology's state-regulated facility. The Idaho company filed a lawsuit in 4th District Court last week claiming the group and its founder Stephen Loosli - with the support of American Ecology's Utah competitor EnergySolutions - made false and misleading statements about American Ecology. Loosli said the lawsuit was filed to quiet a critic and that the assertions that Citizens for a Clean Idaho is a front group for EnergySolutions are unfounded.

A group created to protest American Ecology's plan to bring extremely low-level nuclear waste to its Owyhee County burial facility has closed up shop after the company filed a defamation lawsuit. Rexburg-based Citizens for a Clean Idaho has taken its Web site down and failed to respond to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff report that discounted its claims about Westinghouse Electric's request for a federal exemption to ship 50,000 tons of soil and debris contaminated with extremely low levels of radioactive material to American Ecology's state-regulated facility. The Idaho company filed a lawsuit in 4th District Court last week claiming the group and its founder Stephen Loosli - with the support of American Ecology's Utah competitor EnergySolutions - made false and misleading statements about American Ecology. Loosli said the lawsuit was filed to quiet a critic and that the assertions that Citizens for a Clean Idaho is a front group for EnergySolutions are unfounded.

"A judge heard the closing arguments Friday on whether a lawsuit against Lockheed Martin Corp. should be expanded into a class action. Circuit Court Judge Jannette Dunnigan said she will rule at a later date on the request of the four plaintiffs who are asking her to establish a medical monitoring system and to open it up to a class action lawsuit. The case heard Thursday is one of several lawsuits filed against Lockheed claiming personal injury and property damage from the exposure to the chemical beryllium. Lockheed purchased the former Loral American Beryllium plant at 1600 Tallevast Road and the lawsuits claim the corporation is responsible for damages."

McDermott International Inc.'s Babcock & Wilcox unit agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle a lawsuit over claims that two Pennsylvania nuclear processing plants caused personal injuries and property damage. The settlement, pending court approval, would end a lawsuit that began in 1994 and had been delayed for years by Babcock & Wilcox's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000. A trial set for January was postponed while the parties pursued settlement negotiations, according to court papers filed yesterday. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, contended that Babcock & Wilcox plants in Apollo and Parks Township, Pennsylvania, exposed people to toxic levels of radiation. BP Plc's Atlantic Richfield, which had also been sued, settled in 2008 for $27.5 million. The Babcock & Wilcox settlement was filed yesterday.

"Japan faces the possibility of having to pay huge compensation to overseas victims of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant because it has yet to sign any international convention that defines procedures for filing lawsuits for damages from a nuclear accident that extend beyond a nation's borders. While the Kan administration has compiled a framework to provide support to Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant, as it makes compensation payments, if lawsuits were filed overseas the total compensation could go much higher than current estimates of several trillions of yen. There are three conventions which establish the standards for having the nation where a nuclear accident has occurred handle compensation lawsuits. "

Public employees have filed a lawsuit demanding documents related to the U.S. EPA's plans made "in secrecy" to allow public exposure to increased levels of radioactivity following nuclear accidents or attacks. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility under the Freedom of Information Act claims that the agency "wrongfully withheld" comments submitted by EPA and other federal and state agency officials and by representatives of private corporations or trade associations to the EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air as it prepared its updated Protective Action Guides. The radiation guides are protocols for responding to incidents ranging from nuclear power plant accidents to transportation spills to dirty bombs.

Public employees have filed a lawsuit demanding documents related to the U.S. EPA's plans made "in secrecy" to allow public exposure to increased levels of radioactivity following nuclear accidents or attacks. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility under the Freedom of Information Act claims that the agency "wrongfully withheld" comments submitted by EPA and other federal and state agency officials and by representatives of private corporations or trade associations to the EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air as it prepared its updated Protective Action Guides. The radiation guides are protocols for responding to incidents ranging from nuclear power plant accidents to transportation spills to dirty bombs.

The Department of Justice's initial response to the state of Washington's lawsuit against the Department of Energy over Hanford cleanup says the federal government cannot be held liable for deadlines that have not been missed. The state filed a lawsuit against DOE in late November after DOE missed some cleanup deadlines and acknowledged it was unlikely to meet other deadlines in the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement. The Department of Justice response also questions whether the state had authority over some of the issues it raised, pointing out for example that radioactive materials are governed by the federal Atomic Energy Act.

An employee at a nuclear facility in eastern Idaho has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit in federal court, contending her employer retaliated against her for reporting safety violations. Lea Ann Allen earlier this month sued CWI, which is cleaning up radioactive waste at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory. The lawsuit alleges that safety violations Allen reported included shipping contaminated materials, exposing workers to radiation, and using faulty equipment to measure radiation exposure.

A federal lawsuit filed against Exelon Corp. shouldn't affect plans to build a nuclear plant in Victoria County, Exelon officials said. NRG Energy Corp. filed its lawsuit Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, asking the court to correct Exelon's false and misleading claims, an NRG news release stated. NRG said that Exelon's exchange offer serves as a tool to pressure the NRG board of directors into accepting Exelon's inadequate offer to take over the company. The news release calls the offer a ruse because such an offer would cost billions more than Exelon's current merger bid because it would require additional refinancing for NRG debt.

Oregon is joining a Washington state lawsuit against the federal government over its slow cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, saying the delays increase the risk of "serious environmental damage" to the Columbia River. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Attorney General John Kroger issued a joint statement today announcing plans to join the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy. Hanford's hazardous waste also threatens the traditional fishing grounds of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, their statement said. Waste stored in 177 tanks at the former weapons production site threatens the Columbia, Washington and Oregon say, with at least 67 single-wall tanks already leaking.

Conservation groups say they may add endangered species claims to a lawsuit seeking to stop uranium mining in western Colorado. The groups are suing the U.S. Department of Energy over a leasing program for more uranium mining on 42 square miles near Dolores River Canyon in southwest Colorado. The lawsuit has been pending since last summer in federal court in Denver. The environmentalists said Wednesday that more uranium mining would release poisons that could hurt protected fish and waterfowl living on the Dolores and San Miguel rivers.

The state of Washington's lawsuit against the Department of Energy to enforce Hanford cleanup deadlines could go to trial in March 2012, Judge Fred Van Sickle of Eastern Washington District federal court said Friday. Washington had requested that a trial date be set a year earlier and DOE had proposed a later date. Van Sickle also allowed the state of Oregon to join the lawsuit as an intervenor on the side of Washington state.

"A Rhode Island law firm that won major settlements against the tobacco industry filed a federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of three Kiski Valley residents who allege wrongful death, personal injury and damages from the operations of two former nuclear fuels plants in Apollo and Parks. Although the lawsuit, filed by the Providence-based law firm Motley Rice, does not disclose a dollar figure sought in damages, the court document states that "... incidents to health, property and the environment are extremely dire and can be measured in the millions, if not billions of dollars." The defendants, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group and the Atlantic Richfield, operated a uranium fuel processing plant in Apollo and a plutonium plant in Parks from 1957-86."

Utah's EnergySolutions Inc. is facing a new threat, one that goes beyond attempts to block it from burying foreign radioactive waste at its Tooele County disposal site. A proposed shareholder class-action lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is asking that EnergySolutions' initial public offering (IPO) of two years ago and a secondary offering the next year be rescinded. The lawsuit contends the company and its officers and directors, in the offering prospectus, made false and misleading statements about EnergySolutions' financial condition, its business and future prospects, thereby inflating the price of the company's securities.

Utah's EnergySolutions Inc. is facing a new threat, one that goes beyond attempts to block it from burying foreign radioactive waste at its Tooele County disposal site. A proposed shareholder class-action lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is asking that EnergySolutions' initial public offering (IPO) of two years ago and a secondary offering the next year be rescinded. The lawsuit contends the company and its officers and directors, in the offering prospectus, made false and misleading statements about EnergySolutions' financial condition, its business and future prospects, thereby inflating the price of the company's securities.

"The Yakama Nation has filed a lawsuit challenging the state of Washington's actions to start construction of a cover over closed portions of private company US Ecology's waste disposal trenches at Hanford. Heart of America Northwest Research Center has joined the Yakamas in the lawsuit filed in Yakima County Superior Court. The state believes it has acted properly and that the Yakama Nation does not have a valid case, according to the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. The state has a lease from the federal government for 100 acres on the Hanford nuclear reservation subleased to US Ecology for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste from organizations such as universities, hospitals, biotech firms and electric utilities in western states. The plaintiffs maintain that the landfill contains at least 220 pounds of plutonium 239 plus irradiated fuel segments and other spent nuclear fuel. It also may contain two high-level radioactive fuel rods disposed of at the site around 2003, the plaintiffs said."

Conservation groups filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court claiming that the Department of Energy needs to do more analysis on the impacts of proposed uranium mines near the Dolores River Canyon. The department is considering approving 38 uranium mines on 42 square miles of public lands in the area. The lawsuit claims that the department failed to adequately evaluate soil, water and habitat contamination threats as required by federal law.

Decades-long residents and natives of an impoverished neighborhood, they are among 2,500 people who joined a lawsuit 2 1/2 years ago against big oil corporations and others over land contaminated by 30 years of offshore pipe cleaning at a site just east of the Harvey Canal, owned by the Grefer family. In 1997, an Orleans Parish jury awarded the Grefers, including retired state Judge Joseph Grefer, $1 billion in punitive damages in their own lawsuit against ExxonMobil because of radioactive contamination that spoiled their land.

A former Raytheon Co. worker who says she suffered beryllium poisoning while working at the defense contractor's Waltham lab has won another round in her lawsuit. A federal appeals court in Boston has remanded Suzanne Genereux's lawsuit to the district court, but it upheld an earlier ruling that removed Raytheon from the dispute.

For the first time in the protracted Hanford downwinders lawsuit, the lead lawyer for government contractors said Tuesday his companies are ready to offer cash settlements to a few of the thousands of people who believe their illnesses were caused by radiation releases. U.S. District Judge William F. Nielsen hosted more than a dozen attorneys in Spokane for a status conference on the 18-year-old downwinders lawsuit, which has cost taxpayers more than $57 million to defend.