PITTSBURGH -- A judge in Pennsylvania has approved a $27.5 million settlement between Atlantic Richfield and 250 residents who lived near its former nuclear fuels plants.
The Armstrong County residents filed suit against Atlantic Richfield and another company, charging they were harmed by radioactive releases from facilities in the Apollo and Parks Township areas, The Valley News Dispatch of Tarentum, Pa., reported Wednesday.
Litigation is still pending against Babcock & Wilcox Co., the other defendant in the case.
The plants, northeast of Pittsburgh, were built by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. to process nuclear fuels mostly for military use.
In 1967, Arco purchased the company's stock and sold to Babcock & Wilcox in 1971.
The action against Arco and B&W includes 120 property damage claims and some 240 personal injury claims, some 60 for wrongful death.
Attorneys say some of the victims died as a result of radiation exposure and others from cancer.
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