WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court let more than 2,000 people pursue claims that they were harmed by radiation released during the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
The court turned down without comment today the plant owners' argument that even though the radiation release was above federal limits, no one actually was exposed to excessive radiation.
A partial meltdown at the plant near Harrisburg, Pa., in March 1979 remains the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident. It took almost $1 billion and more than a decade to remove the damaged nuclear fuel.
The lawsuits were filed by area residents who said exposure to radiation caused health problems including leukemia and other cancers.
The plant's owners, operators and suppliers acknowledged that radiation released by the damaged plant exceeded federal limits. But they said the residents should not be allowed to sue because radiation that reached residential areas never exceeded those limits.
Plaintiffs who sued say radiation was excessive in residential areas.
A federal judge in Harrisburg allowed the lawsuits to go forward, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
Federal regulations say a nuclear plant violates its duty of care whenever excessive radiation is released at the plant boundary, whether or not anyone is exposed to that radiation, the appeals court said.
To recover damages, the people who sued still must show they suffered injuries caused by exposure to radiation released by Three Mile Island, the appeals court added.
In the appeal acted on today, lawyers for the plant owners said federal regulations were intended to ''protect real people from actual exposures above the federal permissible dose limits.'' People who did not suffer such exposure should not be allowed to pursue their claims, the appeal argued.
The case is General Public Utilities vs. Dodson, 95-1125.