Downwinders win ruling on emissions

By The Associated Press

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SPOKANE — A federal judge has ruled that plutonium-making at Hanford in the mid-1940s was an "abnormally dangerous" activity that put thousands of people in Eastern Washington at risk.

That means people who live downwind of Hanford and allege harm from Hanford's radiation emissions won't have to prove that government contractors DuPont de Nemours and General Electric acted recklessly when they chemically separated uranium to make plutonium for nuclear bombs.

The only issue will be whether releases of radioactive iodine-131 actually harmed people, said Louise Roselle of Cincinnati, lead attorney for the downwinders.

"This is a major ruling for the downwinders," she said.

U.S. District Judge William Nielsen wrote in his Nov. 3 order that emissions of I-131 could result in "serious illness with serious consequences" — thyroid problems, in particular.

State law imposes strict liability for abnormally dangerous or ultra-hazardous activities, the judge wrote.

"If the activity is abnormally dangerous, then the defendants may be held strictly liable for plaintiffs' damages, regardless of whether defendants exercised the utmost care in the conduct of their activities at Hanford," the order says.

The contractors disagree.

"We believe this decision is fundamentally wrong and merits appeal," said Kevin Van Wart, lead attorney for the Hanford contractors. "We still have years of litigation ahead of us."

Nielsen is preparing for a March trial involving 11 "bellwether" cases to determine an outcome for thousands of others who sued.
 
The lawsuits were filed beginning in 1991, after a government study said the Hanford releases were large enough to increase health risks for people living downwind of the plant.

The entire nation benefited from Hanford's role in developing the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Japan to end World War II, but all the risk from the dangerous manufacture of plutonium was borne by those living downwind, Nielsen wrote.

"The innocent people who can prove they suffered harm should be compensated by the entire nation who benefited from the activity," his order says.