Pool of nuke workers seeking benefits could grow

Dennis J. Carroll | For The New Mexican

6/24/2008 - 6/25/08

A government agency that plays a major role in determining whether former nuclear weapons workers receive promised compensation has agreed to decide whether to expand the number of Los Alamos National Laboratory workers who would qualify for expedited benefits.

The office of U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., announced the National Institute on Safety and Health agreed June 17 to accept a petition filed on behalf of LANL workers and contractors for granting of what is called "special cohort status" to workers who were employed in certain parts of the plant after 1976 and developed certain forms of cancers.

If granted the status by the Department of Health and Human Services, workers would not have to participate in an arduous dose-reconstruction process that NIOSH uses to determine how much radiation workers were exposed to.

Under the petition, which would cover the years 1976 through 2005, the speed-up status would be granted to support service employees such as guards, firefighters, custodians and a wide variety of other laborers who worked in technical areas with a history of the use of radioactive materials.

In a related matter, former nuclear workers, including those from LANL, will rally in several cities today to call attention to their frustrations in obtaining the promised compensation.

Andrew Evaskovich, a LANL guard who filed the petition, said previously that if the petition were determined to be valid, NIOSH would have 180 days to make a recommendation to the White House Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Safety. That board reviews the scientific validity of NIOSH's dose reconstructions and recommends whether workers should be granted the Special Exposure Cohort status.

Two decrees of special cohort status have previously been granted to former LANL workers. One covers those who are likely to have been exposed to radioactive lanthanum in technical area 10 at the Bayo Canyon facility from Sept. 1, 1944, through July 18, 1963. The other covers workers in operational technical areas where radioactive materials were present from 1943 through 1975.

Under a 2000 legislative act pushed by then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, former nuclear workers who could prove they were exposed to certain kinds of radiation and developed certain cancers could receive $150,000 and coverage of medical expenses incurred after they qualified.

Workers and their advocates across the country have complained the process of obtaining the compensation is adversarial to the workers and bogged down by inept bureaucrats and stonewalling policy-makers.

In an effort to air their complaints, sick workers from LANL will rally today from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. outside the Energy Employee Compensation Resource Center offices, 412 Paseo de Oñate, Suite D, in Española. Similar rallies are planned today in Denver, Cleveland and Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Contact Dennis J. Carroll at 986-3091 or dcarroll@sfnewmexican.com.