A federal district judge in southern Ohio is allowing most claims brought by a group of local residents to proceed against current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site.
With the exception of not allowing minor children to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit chiefly concerning property, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley rejected most of the defendants’ motions to dismiss the suit without a trial. The defense cited statutes of limitations and the Price Anderson Act, which covers nuclear liability.
The plaintiffs make various claims connected with alleged off-site radiological contamination by the contractors. The plaintiffs hope to achieve certification of their class action lawsuit members — people living within five miles of the Portsmouth Site — by early 2024, according to a report filed with the court Monday. There were no further filings as of deadline.
Barring settlement, trial is not expected before 2025, according to the status report.
Ursula and Jason McGlone along with seven other adults, and their minor children, filed their initial suit in late May 2019, only weeks after Zahn’s Corner Middle School in Piketon, Ohio “abruptly closed,” the judge said in the March 31 order. “Hazardous levels of enriched Uranium were found inside the school building and Neptunium-237 was detected by a neighboring air monitor,” the court said in the order.
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs sued soon after learning of apparent contamination around their homes, located within three miles of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, as well as the contamination at the school. The plaintiffs filed their fourth amended complaint in March 2021. The litigation was filed within four years after the plaintiffs learned of the off-site contamination, the judge said.
Defendants Centrus Energy, United States Enrichment Corporation, Uranium Disposition Services, BWXT Conversion Services, Mid-America Conversion Services, Bechtel Jacobs Company, LATA/Parallax Portsmouth and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth filed their motion to dismiss in May 2021.
The judge also said the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that their families could have been exposed to radioactive dose limits in excess of federal standards. The district judge agreed with the plaintiffs argument that although it has been years since some contractors were on the site, the group of defendants are all part of the fuel cycle at Portsmouth.
