More former Dimona employees with cancer sue for neglect

A view of Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/228936.html

The number of workers suffering from cancer who have filed lawsuits against the Dimona nuclear plant over the lack of proper safety measures is on the rise.

Victims say the high level of radioactive radiation that they were exposed to at Dimona is the main cause of the cancer that they are suffering from.

So far, over 60 people working at Dimona have filled lawsuit against the site's officials. The victims say officials had assured them that they were protected properly and that the level of harmful radiation was being monitored carefully, but now the opposite has been proven.

The victims are demanding 120,860,000 Shekel (about 32 million dollars) in compensation.

On Monday, 24 more people, diagnosed with cancer, filled lawsuits against the Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, accusing Dimona officials of deceiving them about their safety and protection.

Earlier this months, a lawsuit by 44 former Dimona workers told an Israeli court that they were sent to search for uranium ore across Israel without the necessary protection and that they were equipped only with goggles and masks that did not protect them from radiation.

The National Insurance, however, refused to recognize their cancer as work-related, claiming that the levels of radiation to which they were exposed were not the cause of their illness.

Dramatic increases in cancer cases, sterility and abnormal births south of the West Bank is said to be linked to a uranium leak at the Dimona nuclear power plant.

The nuclear reactor has become very old after 48 years, with experts warning of that the leakage could reach Jordan, Syria, Egypt and even Libya.