The Nation - News from July 22, 1986

U.S. District Judge Frank Theis in Oklahoma City gave attorneys for the family of Karen Silkwood and for Kerr-McGee Corp. until Sept. 8 to file their interpretation of a U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Denver last year that ordered a new trial in the alleged plutonium contamination case. The Denver court said the trial would be limited to conduct by Kerr-McGee that might have allowed plutonium to escape from its plant where Silkwood worked and punitive damages that might result from that conduct. A federal court jury awarded Silkwood’s family $10.5 million in 1979. Silkwood died in a 1974 auto accident.