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A final judgment for more than $926 million was entered Monday on behalf of homeowners who lived near the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in 1989 as a long-running lawsuit edged closer to appeal. The landowners, who were downwind from the nuclear facility, sued two companies that operated the site, Rockwell International Corp. and the Dow Chemical Co. In his decision, U.S. District Judge John L. Kane followed the jury's award by granting the landowners up to $725.9 million in compensatory damages, including prejudgment interest. In addition, Kane entered judgment for $110.8 million for "exemplary" damages from Dow and $89.4 million from Rockwell.

-U.S.-Japanese joint venture GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy expects to resubmit its nuclear reactor design into the U.K. regulatory process in 2011, after it completes the process in the U.S., the company's senior vice president told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday. Once the reactor design clears the U.K. regulatory process, the company expects to be able to have its first nuclear reactor in operation by 2020, Danny Roderick said. "We believe we could have it licensed in the U.K. before 2014,"

-U.S.-Japanese joint venture GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy expects to resubmit its nuclear reactor design into the U.K. regulatory process in 2011, after it completes the process in the U.S., the company's senior vice president told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday. Once the reactor design clears the U.K. regulatory process, the company expects to be able to have its first nuclear reactor in operation by 2020, Danny Roderick said. "We believe we could have it licensed in the U.K. before 2014,"

Debbie Chisholm Kerr has no illusions about her share of the $926 million a judge ordered former Rocky Flats contractors to pay neighbors of the long-defunct nuclear weapons plant. "We'll be lucky if we ever see it," Kerr said Tuesday. "I'm realistic. If you got a dollar you'd be lucky. You don't count on it." Kerr is among 13,000 current and former property owners due east of Rocky Flats whose land was polluted by radioactive soil that blew from the plant, where nuclear weapons were manufactured for more than 45 years. Federal District Court Judge John L. Kane ruled Monday that two companies, Rockwell International Corp. and Dow Chemical Co., owe residents nearly $726 million in compensation. Kane also hit the firms with some $200 million in punitive damages.

DENVER (AP) - Two companies that worked as contractors with the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have been ordered to pay $925 million to residents who claimed that contamination blown from the facility endangered people's health and devalued their property. A federal judge on Monday ordered Dow Chemical Co. to pay $653 million and the former Rockwell International Corp. $508 million in compensatory damages, but capped the amount to be collected at $725 million.

ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners protested outside Carlisle Cathedral at the pro-nuclear stance of the new bishop. The Right Reverend James Newcome succeeds Graham Dow as Bishop of Carlisle in October. He recently endorsed the nuclear industry, telling journalists: "We regard Sellafield as one of the most important institutions in the diocese. "It employs a significant number of people.

Wake up and good morning. Is the nuclear power industry's renaissance getting backburnered? After a flurry of activity and 26 high-profile deals announced in recent years to build a new generation of nuclear power plants, fresh doubts are emerging. That's important to Florida where two nuclear power projects intended to generate electricity -- one by Progress Energy in Levy County north of Tampa Bay and another by FPL Group in south Florida -- have been in the fast lane but are starting to hit some bumps. A Dow Jones story suggests (subscription required) the U.S. nuclear power sector may have a "few more years in the dark ages" before its long-promised resurgence. Despite nuclear power's improved image, its rising appeal as an alternative to air-polluting coal- and oil-fired power plants, and President Barack Obama's saying nuclear has a place in any plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, nukes are still struggling to win complete government and market support.

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japanese authorities are facing setbacks in their battle to bring the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan under control as pressure builds up in one reactor while a target to supply power to another by Sunday may not be met. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said engineers will open valves inside the container vessel of the No. 3 reactor to alleviate pressure that is building up, a move that could result in the release of radioactive steam. The release of radioactive steam could also affect work being carried out in other parts of the plant, the agency said. However, it said it doesn't expect the government will have to extend the current evacuation zone around the plant as a result of the development.

"Washington's senators are calling for improvements in a program to compensate ill Hanford workers or their survivors. They continue to hear from workers and their families that getting a claim approved is slow and difficult. "Since the average length of time to process a claim takes between one and three years, one of the biggest concerns of Hanford workers is fully understanding upfront the requirements to qualify, rather than investing months and even years of time and resources to ultimately be denied," said the staff of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., in a statement. The senators sent a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Friday urging them to fix inefficiencies that can slow down claims processing in the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program for Hanford workers and those at other sites that have contributed to the Department of Energy nuclear program."