Families of ex-Test Site workers react positively to government plan

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 11:42 a.m.

Yvonne Flowers may become one of 3,000 people to receive some of the $400 million in federal compensation that the Clinton administration promised to pay workers exposed to radiation while building the nation's nuclear bombs.

Flowers' father, the Rev. John Brooks, died of lung and colon cancers after 21 years of work at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where more than 900 above- and below-ground nuclear weapons exploded from 1951 until 1992.

"This is awesome," Flowers said Wednesday, after learning about the unprecedented new compensation program outlined by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Wednesday. Much of it needs congressional approval, but the $100,000 minimum benefit for each cancer victim will help the family if they are confirmed eligible, she said.

Brooks started work on a construction crew at the Test Site in the 1960s and became a foreman, Flowers said. He died on May 17, 1997, at age 74, without hearing the apology issued by the Energy Department along with the announcement of compensation.

"The president and the vice president and I apologize for the suffering these men and women have been through," Richardson said Wednesday. "For far too many, this story is similar. Help wasn't available. The government wasn't there to help families."

Flowers, one of 14 children, said the compensation would help her 74-year-old mother, Clara Ann, who is still paying medical bills from her husband's illnesses.

"I have been dealing with this for so long," Flowers said.

She was among 400 Test Site workers and family members who attended a hearing in Las Vegas in February describing exposures to radiation, dust, asbestos, chemicals and solvents. They represented a total of some 74,000 workers employed over decades at the Test Site. It was unclear during those hearings whether Test Site workers would be included in the final compensation plan.

The proposed benefits package includes current and former workers exposed to radiation at the Test Site; Paducah, Ky.; Piketon, Ohio; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Rocky Flats, Colo.; Hanford, Wash.; Los Alamos, N.M.; Livermore, Calif.; and Burlington, Iowa. However, a number of bills covering workers exposed to beryllium or uranium during mining are competing in Congress.

"It's time Nevada Test Site workers were compensated," said Sandie Medina, who has coordinated medical screenings for Test Site workers for the past two years.

Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of energy for environment, safety and health, said the final plan will use the most liberal standards for awarding benefits. "If they have a minimum dose, we will compensate them," he said. Exposure records or reconstructed doses will be used as evidence, he said.

The DOE's first step, Michaels said, will be to establish an Occupational Illness Compensation Office on May 1 to help workers with claims related to their jobs. If worker records are missing or incomplete, the employee will get the benefit of the doubt, he said.

Physicians around the country who are independent of the DOE will examine nuclear workers' cases, Michaels said.

"We used the most dangerous chemicals ever invented by mankind," Michaels said. "Remember, statistics are people with the tears washed off."

The money to pay for the plan -- $20 million in the next fiscal year, then $120 million a year for three years followed by $70 million to $80 million a year for several years after that -- will come only with congressional approval.

"I think we can get this passed," Richardson said, pointing to the "congressional firepower" standing with him at the Washington announcement.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the minority whip, said Congress was "poised to make good" on years of worker neglect.

"Your attempt to lift the deadly veil of secrecy that has prevented compensation of these workers to date represents a heroic step in the right direction," Reid said.