Media Coverage
Source: Nucleonics Week
Media Coverage
07.30.15
A June ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit could allow plaintiffs to sue nuclear facilities under state law when they believe the facilities’ operations are weakening nearby property values. The ruling allows plaintiffs in Colorado to sue Dow Chemical Co. and Rockwell International Corp. after property values near the Denver-area Rocky Flats nuclear facility fell dramatically as the result of a 1989 FBI raid that determined the facilities were polluting local water with radioactive waste.
According to Nucleonics Week, the nuclear industry is collectively concerned that, as a result of the Colorado ruling, state residents will be able to sue nuclear companies under state law even when there has been “no injury or property damage.” The Nuclear Energy Institute maintains that the ruling will undercut the Price-Anderson Act, which mandates that nuclear reactor facilities must maintain proper levels of liability insurance to protect the public from nuclear incidents.
Washington, DC-based Nuclear Energy partner Elina Teplinsky told Nucleonics Week that the June ruling “left open the arguments that [Price-Anderson] could implicitly preempt state law.” However, the two defendant companies in the Colorado suit did not raise that argument in their appeal, she said.