A White House advisory board voted Thursday to expand the number of Los Alamos nuclear weapons workers eligible for speeded-up compensation for deaths and health problems caused by exposure to radiation.

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, meeting in Niagara Falls, N.Y., voted to amend a previous recommendation by federal nuclear scientists that would have limited the number of workers eligible for a less burdensome compensation process only to those who worked in a few areas of the Los Alamos National Laboratory between March 15, 1943, and Dec. 31, 1975.

Under the panel's recommendation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the time period remains the same, but the number of workers is increased to anyone who worked at the plant for at least 250 days and contracted any of 22 kinds of radiation-induced cancer.

The petition was filed three years ago by former New Mexico state Rep. Harriett Ruiz, whose husband, Ray Ruiz, a LANL iron worker and former state legislator, died of lung cancer in May 2004.

The board's decision, if approved as expected by Sebelius, eliminates a requirement for the affected employees to prove where they worked at the facility to qualify for compensation.

If granted, the Special Exposure Cohort status allows claimants to forego an arduous dose-reconstruction process, which critics claim is adversarial to the former workers.

New Mexico's U.S. Sens. Tom Udall, Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Ben Ray Luján applauded Thursday's decision.

"The process of seeking justice has been long and arduous for these sick Cold War heroes and their families," Udall said in a statement.

The statement also quoted Ruiz as saying, "I made a promise to my husband to continue his fight for just compensation for the ... claimants. This SEC helps fulfill not only my promise to Ray, but the government's promise to these sick workers."

The advisory board will meet in New Mexico this fall to consider another SEC petition filed by current LANL security worker Andrew Evaskovich on behalf of hundreds or even thousands of service support workers employed at LANL from Jan. 1, 1976, to Dec. 31, 2005.

The class of workers includes security guards, firefighters, laborers, custodians, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, sheet-metal workers, ironworkers, welders, maintenance workers, truck drivers, delivery persons and technicians.

In February 2009, the 11-member board meeting in Albuquerque heard testimony from former LANL workers, family members and other advocates, who charged that the dose-reconstruction process is needlessly burdensome for the workers who must prove where they worked and the amount of radiation they were exposed to.

Claimants at dozens of former and current nuclear weapons sites around the country who qualify can receive a lump-sum payment of $150,000 and health care coverage to treat their illnesses.

These benefits are made through the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which Bingaman helped write into law in 2000, and was prompted in great part by then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

Dennis Carroll can be reached at 505 986-3091 or at dcarroll@sfnewmexican.com.