The First Amendment says people can petition the government for a redress of grievances, but what if the government takes 32 years to respond?

A nuclear watchdog group, the New England Coalition, is asking that question after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission took 32 years to deny a petition it filed in 1975.

An NRC spokesman says the matter -- relating to radiation exposures from the mining and milling of the uranium fuel used in nuclear plants -- just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the agency's pile of things to do.

Coalition technical adviser Raymond Shadis says the matter seems funny -- until you start to think about whether radiation might be hurting the environment or hurting people.