A federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld on May 18 a lower court's decision denying a claim by engineering firm Jacobs that it has immunity from lawsuits by workersseeking millions in damages forhealth impacts from cleanup of a massive2008 coal-ash spill在田纳西州的田纳西河谷管理局发电厂。
管理清理工作的雅各布斯声称，由于TVA是一家全资政府公司免于清理责任，工程师也不应作为其承包商承担责任。
The ash spill occurred after a dike on a coal ash pond ruptured at the Kingston power plant, sending ash sludge across 300 onsite and offsite acres and into the Emory River.
'Derivative Immunity'
The U.S. district court in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2021 had denied Jacobs’ motion for “derivative immunity” because of changes in federal law, but the appeals court did not address TVA immunity, declaring that it had “no need to delve into the merits of whether the TVA could have been held liable for these alleged failures.”
在美国环境保护署将TVA委托为管理该清理工作的首席联邦机构之后，Power Prouith Producer于2009年2月聘请了Jacobs进行专业清理服务，包括计划，监督和环境审查。雅各布斯被指定为整体现场恢复和补救的主要承包商。
Part of Jacobs’ role under the contract “was to evaluate the potential hazards to human health and safety associated with the work to be performed in execution of the ash-recovery-and-removal program,” the appeals court said.
The firm prepared a site-specific safety and health plan that it was required to follow under its contract. “In addition, Jacobs was to be proactive in taking necessary measures to avoid accidents or incidents [in] which human health or safety is jeopardized,” the appeals court said.
一些雅各布斯清理员工声称他们我们re exposed to hazardous coal ash and airborne fly ash during the cleanup and filed complaints against the company, claiming negligence in how it conducted the project, completed in 2015 for about $1.1 billion, and exposed workers to hazards.
原告寻求5000万美元的补偿性赔偿和30亿美元的惩罚性赔偿。
自那以后去世的人的清理工人和继承人声称，他们被拒绝了个人保护设备，以保护他们免受毒物的影响。
A federal jury ruled in 2018 that workers’ illnesses may have been caused by the coal-ash exposure and said Jacobs “failed to adhere to the terms of its contract with TVA,” or requirements set in the power plant site’s safety and health plan, as the appeals court said. A second phase of the trial, which has not been set, will determine compensation.
雅各布斯外部律师的德怀特·E·塔沃特（Dwight E. Tarwater）表示，该公司仍在审查上诉法院的意见，并拒绝置评。他说，直到6月1日才能寻求重演。
Fukushima Nuke Cleanup Contract Won
Meanwhile, the Dallas-based company was awarded a contract of undisclosed value to advise in cleanup and decommissioning of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was damaged by a massive earthquake-generated tsunami in 2011.
Under a five-year framework agreement announced May 19 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc., Jacobs will provide program and project management services to the utility’s site decontamination and decommissioning engineering unit. Its tasks include long-term decommissioning strategy planning, management and implementation of supply-chain resources and program definition for fuel debris retrieval, said the utility, with which it has worked since 2016.
Under the new contract, whose value was not disclosed, the utility's in-house engineering unit will assume responsibility for some work previously contracted out.
The 9.0 earthquake, which spawned a tsunami, caused three Fukushima reactors to melt down, causing release of radioactive material. Under the agreement, Jacobs will address the treatment of contaminated water, decontaminated water release, spent fuel, fuel debris and general site improvements, the company said.
Following a May 19 visit, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi noted the cleanup effort's “remarkable progress" in the last two years, despite the pandemic.
Decommissioning is expected to take around four decades, with painstaking work to remove molten fuel from damaged reactors and disposal, beginning next year, of more than 1 million tons of treated water from the site that is currently stored in large tanks. Japan’s government has endorsed a plan to release the water into the ocean after treating it to remove almost all radionuclides and diluting it.
格罗西说：“日本在准备工作方面取得了重大进展，IAEA对TEPCO和[政府机构]确定了计划于2023年的水排出的适当下一步。”
But a panel of researchers named by the太平洋群岛论坛由18个独立的太平洋岛国组成，反对排水。
“At this point, we’re unanimous in saying we don’t see enough information to support dumping the radioactively contaminated water into the ocean,” said Robert Richmond, a research professor at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoaand director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, earlier this month. “Our first recommendation to the group is to take that option off the table for now.”
