Senate OKs NTS compensation

Benjamin Grove

Friday, July 14, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's nuclear weapons workers would be compensated for their work-related illnesses according to legislation passed by the Senate on Thursday.

"These workers deserve compensation for health care costs and lost wages and to assist those families whose loved ones died as a result of their work on our nation's nuclear defense program," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement.

Roughly 3,000 workers nationwide who built and tested nuclear weapons in 10 states, including Nevada Test Site laborers, would be compensated for radiation-related health problems, according to a Department of Energy plan. Workers at the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, oversaw the nuclear weapons tests between 1951 and 1992.

Doctors have discovered lung scars in some workers that may have been caused by beryllium, a metal dust, or silica from dust in the Test Site's underground tunnels.

"This is a matter of simple justice for people who contributed to the national defense effort of this country and made it possible to prevail in the Cold War," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who also pushed for the legislation.

The Department of Energy April 12 announced that it was reversing a decades-old practice of denying compensation to workers who claimed their maladies were caused by their government labor.

The DOE called on Congress to begin paying workers who became ill and compensating families of those who died. In certain instances, workers or survivors could be eligible for a lump sum up to $200,000.

Congress has struggled to determine how to pay for the compensation package, which would cost an estimated $400 million or more over five years.

But the Senate Thursday approved legislation that authorizes spending for the program.

The House has not approved legislation compensating nuclear workers so it's unclear whether the workers' compensation package would become law this year.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she is optimistic the compensation language would survive a conference committee.