Damages awarded in Rocky Flats case

摘要

A federal judge last week ordered two companies that once operated the Energy Department's now-shuttered Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado to pay $925 million to thousands of people whose property was contaminated by plutoni-um-laced soil that was windblown off of the 6,000-acre site near Denver. The ruling could have big financial implications for DOE, because the department indemnified both contractors under the Price-Anderson Act, and will therefore have to pay the huge judgment if it is not reduced or overturned on appeal. The ruling, issued Monday by Judge John Kane of the US District Court for the District of Colorado, in Denver, is the latest development in a class-action lawsuit that was filed 18 years ago on behalf of more than 13,000 people who own homes and businesses near Rocky Flats. The suit alleged that Dow Chemical and Rockwell International, which operated the plant for DOE from the early 1950s until it was shut down in 1989, carelessly and recklessly allowed plutonium to contaminate nearby homes and businesses. A jury found Dow and Rockwell liable for damages in 2006, but the two contactors asked for a new trial, saying Kane allowed jurors to hear "irrelevant and highly prejudicial" testimony. Lawyers for the contactors also took issue with the way that the jury calculated the amount of compensatory and punitive damages that the property owners were due.