In court papers filed this week, current and past contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio deny their work led to the cancer suffered by a former student at a now-closed middle school near the nuclear cleanup property.
In a 12-page document filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, the contractors provided a combined answer to the March complaint by Christian Rose, diagnosed in June 2022 with Burkitt Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.
Now an adult, Rose, who spent two years as a student at the Zahn’s Corner Middle School, has undergone chemotherapy. The plaintiff alleged the Portsmouth contractors failed to contain radiological contamination at the Portsmouth Site.
The school, about two miles from the former gaseous diffusion plant, shut down in May 2019 due to enriched uranium being found inside the building, according to the Rose suit. The closure has sparked a number of civil suits against current and former contractors. The DOE’s 2023 omnibus budget includes $20 million for replacement of the middle school near Piketon.
The corporate defendants deny running their operations in an unsafe or non-compliant manner; say they obeyed applicable government standards and did not cause the plaintiff’s cancer. The defendants also assert, among other things, the claims are barred under the statute of limitations and federal preemption doctrine. The defendants also cite the government contractor defense, which generally shields contractors from tort liability.
The filing was made jointly by Centrus Energy; United States Enrichment Corporation; Uranium Disposition Services; BWXT Conversion Services; Mid-America Conversion Services; Bechtel Jacobs; LATA/Parallax Portsmouth; and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth.
“Plaintiff’s claims are barred because Defendants’ actions, if any, occurred within a federal enclave,” according to the joint defense brief signed by Jacob Mahle, an attorney with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Cincinnati.
