DIMONA, Israel, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Former workers at an Israeli nuclear reactor suffered cancer and other diseases caused by exposure to radiation while searching for uranium ore, a lawsuit says.
The class-action suit, in Petah Tikva District Court, says 44 former employees of Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona had been sent to search for uranium ore across Israel without the necessary protection, Haaretz reported.
The workers had been involved in a search for uranium in weeklong stints and were equipped only with goggles and masks that did not protect them from radiation, the lawsuit said.
Government and reactor officials said if the former workers had been exposed to radiation it was at levels equal to what they would have been exposed to in everyday life, Haaretz reported.
The suit also names family members of the former workers as plaintiffs.
