In Re Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation Phillips v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co.

The government's WWII-era Hanford plutonium-production facility, operated under contract by DuPont (defendant), released a radioactive byproduct, 1-131, later shown to cause thyroid disease; after Congress's 1988 Price-Anderson Act placed nuclear-incident claims under federal jurisdiction and allowed suits against government contractors, plaintiffs (including Phillips) sued DuPont for strict liability, and a bellwether trial produced a roughly $550,000 verdict for two of twelve chosen plaintiffs after the court instructed the jury to apply but-for causation and rejected DuPont's contractor-immunity defense as preempted by the Act.