Rocky Flats Class Action Wrapping Up

Here’s the start of an AP article published at The Denver Channel:

After hearing months of testimony, a federal court jury was expected to soon begin deliberating whether the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant contaminated neighboring land with plutonium as claimed by thousands of residents.

Residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Rockwell International Corp. and Dow Chemical Co., which operated the plant at separate times for the federal government. The suit claims contamination from the plant, which shut down in 1989, drastically reduced property values for about 13,000 landowners.

Defense attorneys have said damages could reach $500 million. The government would cover the damages and the companies’ legal bills because they were operating as contractors.

Rocky Flats, just west of Denver, made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads. It was closed because of safety problems and the end of the Cold War. Dow operated the plant from the 1950s until 1975; Rockwell ran it from 1975 until the plant was shut down.

For the rest, click here. For more information, try the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board.