By Andrew Horan
(Orange County Register)

In a landmark case challenging the industry's limits, woman says radiative fuel fragments at the plant caused her leukemia.

For 18 months, R.C. Tang monitored the safety of workers at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. She saw to it that they safely followed security, engineering and technical procedures.

Today she is in a Los Angeles-area cancer ward, recovering from leukemia treatments as jury selection begins on her landmark lawsuit that challenges the industry's position on safe radiation limits.

Tang's attorneys, Don Howarth and Suzelle Smith of Los Angeles, will argue that radiation-detection badges and monitors are adequate.

For instance, most monitors are not designed to detect the kind of radiation emitted by fuel fleas because it is assumed they will not escape.