Georgia Department of Natural Resources v. Theragenics Corp.

Carley, Justice.

Appellee Theragenics Corporation is a Georgia company that develops, manufactures and sells radioactive “seeds” for use in a cancer treatment procedure known as brachytherapy. The active element in the seeds is Palladium-103 (Pd-103), which does not exist in nature and which Theragenics manufactures by using its own proprietary method. Theragenics was the first company to produce and market a Palladium seed, and it is apparently only one of two that currently produces a Pd-103 seed. Because radioactive material is used in manufacturing the product, Theragenics’s operations are…