INL Workers Suing After Exposure to Plutonium

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Two workers at the Idaho National Laboratory are suing the U.S. Department of Energy under the Freedom of Information Act because they say they were wrongly denied documentation about an accident in which they were exposed to plutonium.

Brian Simmons and Ralph Stanton were among several workers packaging plutonium reactor fuel plates at the Idaho facility when they were exposed to radiation in 2011. Earlier this year they filed a public records request asking the U.S. Department of Energy for documentation relating to the accidental exposure, including security video of the event.

In the lawsuit, the men contend the DOE wrongly denied them access to the video because the agency erroneously determined it wasn't an agency record, but was instead the property of a private contractor.