Safety Found Flawed at Ohio Uranium Plant

Workers at a government uranium-processing plant in southern Ohio routinely inhaled uranium dust, arsenic and other poisons for decades because supervisors did not require them to wear respirators, the Energy Department said Thursday.

In the second of a series of reports on worker exposure both now and during the Cold War years, when safety standards were lower, the department documented worker exposure to plutonium-laced uranium, asbestos and an array of chemicals at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

“I think we may have a huge national problem on our hands,” said Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democrat whose district includes the plant.

He and other lawmakers said the report would buttress efforts to get Congress to approve compensation for workers whose health was ruined by exposure to contamination at Piketon and other government weapon plants.

“This gives us ammunition to go to our colleagues and say the federal government messed up. The federal government was negligent,” said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio).

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson wants to give lifetime health coverage or $100,000 in cash to every weapon-plant worker who contracted beryllium disease or radiation-caused cancer.