Showdown looming in Pittsburgh over nuclear plant
Copyright 1998 Pennsylvania Law Weekly
August 17, 1998
Residents of a small Armstrong County community say that radiation leaks from a
now-defunct nuclear fuel processing plant prompted an unusually high
cancer rate in their town. For the next month in federal court in Pittsburgh,
attorneys for eight
people from Apollo, about 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, will argue that
those leaks caused eight plaintiffs or their relatives to get
cancer. Attorneys for the companies that operated the plant, which stopped producing
uranium in 1986 and has since been razed, say any radioactive material that
escaped from the plant was unlikely to
cause
cancer. Andrew Roman, a Pittsburgh attorney who teaches a class about environmental and
toxic waste claims, said the lawyers must pinpoint the cause of the illnesses,
but
cancer cannot easily be attributed to any one cause. "Here, the plaintiffs have to prove that their
cancers were caused by
exposure to that uranium," and a typical defense tactic would be to cast doubt on that, Roman said. The
outcome of the current trial could affect more than 200 related cases that are
pending. More than 90 personal injury claims, 120 property damage claims and a
class-action lawsuit were filed in
1994 against B&W Nuclear Environmental Services, Inc., Atlantic Richfield Co., and Babcock and
Wilcox Co., the successive operators of the plant. The plaintiffs want medical
monitoring, compensation for medical tests and full disclosure of all company
documents regarding release of radioactive and toxic waste. More than 800,000 cubic feet of soil and debris were shipped to a radioactive
waste dump site when it was razed in the early 1990s.
During its years of operation, Apollo residents say the plant's more than 100
stacks released a white dust that floated in the air and settled on plants and
cars. Residents say the 1,900-population of Apollo developed an abnormally high
cancer rate. Three state health
studies and a federal health studies showed no unusual rates of birth defects
or cancer.
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