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Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee - Significance, Near Disaster, Commercial Nuclear Energy

karen york damages plaintiff

Plaintiff

Estate of Karen Silkwood

Defendant

Kerr-McGee Nuclear Company

Plaintiff's Claim

Damages for negligence leading to the plutonium contamination of Karen Silkwood.

Chief Lawyers for Plaintiff

Gerald Spence, Arthur Angel, James Ikard

Chief Defense Lawyers

Elliott Fenton, John Griffin, Jr., Larry D. Ottoway, William Paul, L. E. Stringer, Bill J. Zimmerman

Judge

Frank G. Theis

Place

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Date of Decision

18 March 1979

Decision

Defendant was found negligent and was ordered to pay $505,000 actual damages, $10 million punitive damages.

Related Cases

  • Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1973).
  • Pacific G&E Co. v. State Energy Res. C&D Com., 461 U.S. 190 (1983).

Sources

Paehlke, Robert, ed. Conservation and Environmentalism: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1995.

Further Readings

  • Kohn, Howard. Who Killed Karen Silkwood? New York: Summit, 1981.
  • Rashke, Richard. The Killing of Karen Silkwood. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981.
  • "Silkwood Settlement." Science News, August 8, 1986, p. 134.
  • Spence, Gerry. With Justice for None. New York: Times Books, 1989.
  • Stein, J. "The Deepening Mystery." Progressive, January 1981, pp. 14-19.

Additional Topics

Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee - Significance

This precedent-setting action between the estate of a dead woman and a giant industrial conglomerate sparked a public uproar about the issue of safety at nuclear facilities and held a company liable for negligence. Karen Silkwood, a young lab technician and union activist at an Oklahoma plutonium plant, operated by the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Company, uncovered evidence in 1974 of managerial wrongdoing…

Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee - Near Disaster

Three weeks into the trial something happened that raised the question of nuclear safety throughout the United States. A nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania had a near meltdown. For most Americans, the disaster at Three Mile Island was their first experience of the potential for nuclear calamity. The incident cast an inevitable pall over the Silkwood suit, enough for Kerr-McGee chief attorney Bill Pau…

Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee - Commercial Nuclear Energy

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower helped usher in the age of commercial nuclear energy when he called for the use of "Atoms for Peace" in a speech before the United Nations. Just eight years before, "atoms for war" had been used in a dramatic way when the United States dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus ending World War II. In 1957, the first commerc…

Solem v. Helm - The Origins Of Proportional Punishment, The Case Of Jerry Helm, Mixed Messages, Lingering Problems [next] [back] Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group - Significance, Uncle Sam And Eligible Young Men, Questions Of Punitive Intent And Compulsion, Marshall's Dissent: "a De Facto Classification Based On Wealth"

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