As reported by the Company’s FORM 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2000, the parties executed a settlement agreement and, on March 27, 2000, filed the agreement with the Federal court. On that date, the court also approved the form of the settlement notice to be sent to shareholder class members and set down a schedule for the mailing of the notice (May 10, 2000), the formal hearing to approve the settlement (July 24, 2000), and the date to file proof of claim forms (September 29, 2000). Any class member who wished to object to or opt-out of the settlement was required to do so in writing by July 5, 2000. On July 24, 2000, the court entered an Order approving the settlement which provides for the dismissal of Stepak v. NU et al, a related state court action. The time to take an appeal has expired and the judgment is final.

According to the same SEC filing, pursuant to a court order dated October 1, 1997, the six class actions separately filed against NU in 1996 were consolidated for pre-trial and trial purposes. The actions are based on various federal securities law and common law theories alleging misrepresentations and omissions in public disclosures related to the NU system's nuclear problems, which resulted in extended outages at Millstone and impacted the financial condition of NU and certain of its subsidiaries. These complaints represent classes of plaintiffs who purchased or otherwise acquired NU common stock from March 1994 to April 1996.

The original complaint, the class action suit filed by shareholder Rosalie Cronan in U.S. District Court for Connecticut, in Hartford, Jan. 29 , claims NU made "materially false and misleading statements" about the Millstone reactors in annual reports and filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (Docket 397CV00189). NU intentionally failed to disclose major problems with the plants as part of a "scheme to artificially inflate" the price of common stock, Cronan charged.