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.

Israeli Whistleblower Helped US Daunt Others

Source: PressTV

Former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission says the Israeli nuclear whistleblower has served the regime because his revelations helped Tel Aviv intimidate others.

Yet Uzi Eilam, a retired army brigadier-general who ran the commission between 1976 and 1986, says the whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu did a service by alerting foes to the country's military might.

Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years as a traitor in a secret trial in 1986. He was abducted at that time from Italy after revealing information about an illegal nuclear program at Israel's Dimona reactor to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

Vanunu's information proved that Israel had broken the 1968 treaty on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

There is a US law that prohibits the support of countries that break the treaty in question.

Eilam said Vanunu's interview with the British paper, which led foreign experts to conclude that Israel had produced fissile material for as many as 200 atomic warheads, had helped Israel's strategic standing by unveiling its military might.

He was released in 2004, but confined to Israel since then even though he was merely a technical assistant with limited and outdated information. Israeli military officials; however, worry that he may reveal more secrets about Israel's nuclear weapons.

To date, he is still not permitted to speak to non-Israeli's.

"I've always believed he should be let go," Eilam, told Reuters on Sunday.

"I don't think he has significant knowledge to reveal (about Dimona) now," he added.

"It served to bolster our deterrence," he concluded.

Vanunu has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize including this years' award. He has reportedly asked that his name be removed from the list that holds the name of Shimon Peres as the man, according to Vanunu, is behind Israeli atomic policy.