Radiation victims deserve attention

It’s by no means the end of the argument, but U.S. District Judge William Fremming Nielsen’s Nov. 3 order in the Hanford downwinder case was an important milestone. He ruled that plaintiffs alleging harm from radiation emissions during the production of plutonium in the 1940s do not have to prove that contractors acted recklessly.

Under Nielsen’s ruling, if it stands, the urgent nature of plutonium production made it an “abnormally dangerous” activity that put downwinders at risk. Therefore, attorneys will have to prove only that plaintiffs were harmed by it.

Attorneys for the defendants – government contractors Du Pont de Nemours Inc. and General Electric Co. – say they will appeal the ruling. They claim, among other things, that their clients shouldn’t be held liable for carrying out the wishes of the government.

Whether or not the contractors’ arguments prevail on the legal merits, the government should not ignore the victims. The government long ago established a compensation fund for victims of radiation exposure in Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Victims in Idaho have been clamoring to get on the list after a study seven years ago showed that the state was among the hardest hit by fallout from nuclear-bomb testing in Nevada.

Nielsen is correct when he says the fast-track production of plutonium for atomic bombs at Hanford Nuclear Reservation helped the entire nation, so the nation should not turn its backs on the small subset of Americans who were harmed.

“If injury to some was the necessary price for a benefit to the many, the just course is to be glad of the benefit while compensating the injured,” Nielsen wrote.

Hanford plutonium was used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, which hastened the end of World War II.

Nielsen ruled that production pressures precluded steps that could have limited the effects on downwinders. He also ruled that the government had sufficient scientific evidence at the time of the emissions to determine that downwinders could be harmed. Releases of radioactive iodine-131 from Hanford were carried north and east and fell on crops and the pastures of dairy cows.

Nielsen has ordered a few bellwether cases to trial in March to produce more information that could form the basis of settlements with thousands of victims. That would be a positive development in litigation that has dragged on for more than a decade.

Downwinders with legitimate claims have been victimized once. The government should make sure that doesn’t happen again.