A worker at the troubled nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico is suing over smoke inhalation injuries from an underground fire in the storage facility.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that William Utter filed the lawsuit in May, three months after the Feb. 5 incident in which a salt-hauling truck caught fire below the surface at the now-shuttered Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Utter is a waste handler for Nuclear Waste Partnership. The contractor and its corporate parent are defendants in the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensation and punitive damages.
NWP spokesman Donavan Mager said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
In addition to the fire, the plant located in Carlsbad experienced a radiation leak on Feb. 14 that contaminated above-ground workers when a waste barrel burst.
Information from: Albuquerque Journal.
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