(U-WIRE) CHICAGO -- University of Chicago administrators announced this week that the terms in a contract made between the University of Chicago and the U.S. government by which it took control of the operations of a federally owned nuclear laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., absolve the U of C from damages resulting from the laboratory's operation.

This provision in the World War II-era contract, administrators say, undercuts a lawsuit Oak Ridge residents have filed against the University of Chicago and more than a dozen major corporations.

Residents claim in the lawsuit that the U of C is partially responsible for radiation poisoning they alleged to have suffered from since the 1940s.

"The contract promises to indemnify and to hold harmless the University," said Larry Arbeiter, director of communications of the University of Chicago. According to Arbeiter, the terms of the contract may make it difficult for plaintiffs to prove that the University, which has not managed the facility since the mid-1940's, when the contract expired, is responsible for their health problems.

The University is taking steps to create a legal defense team. "We have identified an outside counsel and expect to have made that relationship formal within the week," Arbeiter said.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which the University of Chicago managed, is one of three separate nuclear research facilities in the town of Oak Ridge. Workers at each of these laboratories originally filed claims against the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act in the early nineties. But the Supreme Court of Tennessee, citing certain provisions in tort law, ruled that the government was not liable for these claims.

In a second effort, made between 1994 and 1997, nearly one hundred workers at the plants filed eight cases against the manufacturers of Beryllium, a substance they handled on the job that experts say leads to cancer. These lawsuits, filed against roughly 20 manufacturers, are still pending because, with roughly 60 years past, it is unclear as to who manufactured the chemical element.

To rectify the situation, the government amended the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. This act provides recompense for injured workers. Bill Richardson, Energy Secretary, explained that workers who qualified would receive compensation for lost wages, or monetary support in a lump sum of $150,000.

Now, former employees of the three Oak Ridge laboratories are again seeking compensation through legal action. "Everybody who worked there has got a case," said Tom Slagle, who serves as law clerk to Justice James H. Jarvis, the judge who will rule over the pending cases brought against the University of Chicago.

Many people in Oak Ridge believe that $150,000 will not cover their damages. "They're trying to get to contractors because all other venues have failed," Slagle said.