Uranium miners should be able to get extra compensation by next summer

Matt Kelley

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 4:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Uranium miners sickened by radiation while helping Cold War nuclear weapons efforts should be able to collect an extra $50,000 in government compensation beginning next summer.

President Clinton signed an executive order Thursday that says federal agencies must have the enhanced compensation program up and running by July 31, 2001. The program also provides $150,000 payments to Energy Department workers sickened by radiation or some toxic substances.

The Labor Department will oversee the payments to Energy Department workers, while the Justice Department will keep its oversight of payments to sick uranium miners.

"I'm very pleased that they've moved so quickly to make clear where the responsibility lies and set some deadlines," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. Bingaman, one of the chief backers of the new law, represents a state with hundreds of both former miners and Energy Department workers associated with Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories.

For a decade, uranium miners have been eligible for up to $100,000 each if they suffer from certain radiation-related ailments. A law passed by Congress earlier this year raised miners' compensation to $150,000 and added free medical treatment for their qualifying illnesses.

That measure was part of a larger package that offered the same compensation package to Energy Department workers sickened by radiation, silica or beryllium.

Clinton's Thursday order directs the Justice Department to tell miners who have already gotten their $100,000 payments that they are eligible for the extra benefits.

"While the nation can never fully repay these workers or their families, they deserve fair compensation for their sacrifices," Clinton said in a statement released with the executive order. "I am pleased to take the next critical step in ensuring that these courageous individuals receive the compensation and recognition they have long deserved."

Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act 10 years ago to compensate some of the victims of Cold War nuclear weapons programs, including uranium miners. To be eligible, miners must have worked for about four years in uranium mines between 1942 and 1971 and have lung cancer or one of several other ailments linked to radiation exposure.

Many of the mines were in the Four Corners area where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet, and many of the miners were Navajos who live in the area.

As of Oct. 2, the Justice Department had approved 1,692 miners' claims worth about $168.6 million and denied 1,555 miners' claims. The fund to pay the miners ran out of money this spring, however, and since then more than 2,200 miners have gotten IOUs instead of payments.

Squabbling between Clinton and Congress over unrelated issues has so far stalled approval of the spending bill containing the miners' money.

"The radiation program isn't even an issue, but it's being held up by other problems. That's just not right," said Becky Rockwell, an investigator in Durango, Colo., who has helped hundreds of miners file claims.

Other complaints about the compensation program prompted Congress to make other changes in a separate law earlier this year. That measure made it easier for miners to qualify for the payments and expanded the list of cancers and other ailments that make miners eligible.