Expert claims nuclear plant cover-up

Workers at the Negev Nuclear Research Center underwent superficial and inadequate radiation exposure tests, an expert on radiation safety told the Petah Tikvah District Court.

Dan Litai’s testimony came during a court hearing Dec. 12 in a case meant to determine whether former employees of the institute, located in southern Israel, should be recognized as the victims of work-related accidents after they were diagnosed with cancer.

Litai, who served as a radiation safety engineer at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, claimed that until the late 1990s there was no department tasked with calculating and assessing the levels of internal radiation contamination, only external contamination.

Last week, the court heard the testimony of Thelma Byrne, who headed the radiation safety department at the Soreq center.

“I worked with materials whose nature was unknown. They didn’t tell us what we were exposed to,” she said, adding that the cancer victims could have been spared if they would have undergone preventive radiation exposure tests, but such tests were not given.

The damages suit was submitted by 44 employees of the Dimona-based reactor and the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in the mid-1990s. Some of the plaintiff have since died. — ynetnews.com