Two former employees at a Salem Township nuclear power plant can proceed with defamation claims alleging their former employer maliciously used a database to retaliate against them for reporting safety concerns, a Philadelphia judge has ruled.

The two said in their complaint that they were fired as retaliation for raising issues about plant operations.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Denis P. Cohen on Dec. 11 let stand the plaintiffs' defamation and false-light claims against PPL Susquehanna LLC, as well as one plaintiff's claim for tortious interference. Cohen sustained preliminary objections to the plaintiffs' claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as one plaintiff's tortious interference claim and a reference in the complaint to “other falsehoods” to be revealed in discovery.