A nine-person jury in San Diego, California, absolved the utility owners and the manufacturer of the San Onofre nuclear station of charges that the plant caused the wife of a former employee to develop chronic myelogenous leukemia. The jury heard 22 days of testimony and deliberated the case for 3 1/2 hours before issuing its unanimous decision. The case had been filed by the estate and family of the late Ellen M Kennedy.
This was the second consecutive successful trial for Southern California Edison, the plant’s majority owner, and ABB Combustion Engineering, which won a favourable verdict in a similar radiation-related case in 1995.
