Jury Rejects Afflicted Engineer’s Claim Against Nuclear Plant

In a victory for the nuclear power industry, a federal court jury Thursday rejected the claim of a former engineer at California’s San Onofre nuclear plant that he contracted leukemia because of radiation leaks at the facility.

The jury decided that attorneys for 63-year-old Glen James had not proven that he received enough radiation to cause his chronic myelocytic leukemia or that the plant’s owners and operators had permitted unsafe conditions.

“I felt for a large company, they did rather well,” said juror Genevieve Fitzwater. “They followed the law (in terms of safety). We all felt very sorry for Mr. James but you can’t give away money to everybody you feel sorry for.”

James and his wife, Doreth, had sought $25 million to $40 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Southern California Edison Co., the plant’s operator and majority owner, San Diego Gas & Electric, which owns 20 percent of the plant, and Combustion Engineering Inc., a contractor at the plant located on the coast north of San Diego.

James’ attorney Donald Howarth had asked jurors to “send a message that a corporation should not put profit ahead of people.” Initially the jury was split 5-3 in favor of James, but after three days of deliberations, it voted 8-0 in favor of the defendants.

The case had been watched closely by the operators of the nation’s 119 nuclear plants, out of concern that a victory for the plaintiff could bring a tide of similar damage suits by workers with cancer.

James worked at San Onofre when the plant was cited and fined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the presence of “fuel fleas,” microscopic bits of radiation, outside containment areas.