(24/7 News) -- Residents in Pike County are taking eight U.S. Department of Energy contractors to court over accusations of negligence in the release of radioactive material.
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A federal class-action lawsuit has been filed, claiming that over two-thousand people were affected by exposure from a nearby diffusion plant which forced the indefinite closure of a local middle school.
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Plaintiffs say the negligence dates back to 1993, over a seven-mile radius from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which at one time produced uranium.
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The eight named defendants are contractors who either carried out enrichment or cleanup operations at the Portsmouth site.