The French public prosecutor has accepted a case on thyroid cancers allegedly arising from the Chernobyl accident. The acceptance of the suit filed against `X' (unknown party) March 1 by the French Association of Thyroid Patients, the critical association Crii-rad, and 51 thyroid cancer patients means the prosecutor's office will name an investigative judge to probe the case. The plaintiffs charge that their thyroid cancers were caused by negligence of public authorities who failed to take protective measures against radioactive fallout from the Ukrainian reactor just after the April 1986 accident. Some 170 thyroid cancer patients have joined the suit or are expected to do so soon, according to Crii-rad, which said the charge accepted by the prosecutor's office--involuntarily bodily harm, a misdemeanor--could be made harsher once the investigative judge completes his work.