Widow tells of NTS injustices

Thursday, June 1, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Dorothy Clayton runs her finger along the black-and-white photograph of her late husband, tracing the gas mask covering his face. The photo was taken just before Glenn led a crew of Nevada Test Site workers underground into a tunnel after a nuclear weapons blast, she recalls.

Inside the tunnel temperatures ranged from 110 to 120 degrees with up to 90 percent humidity. Glenn's face mask slipped as he led the crew to recover equipment that monitored the force of the nuclear explosion.

"They were constantly exposed," Dorothy Clayton said. "They had no protection from radiation."

In 1992 Glenn, a 30-year Test Site employee, became ill from the first of five cancers in the brain, bladder and lungs. He died June 5, 1999.

"It seemed as if he got sick with a new cancer every year," Dorothy recalled.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., visited the Clayton home and heard Dorothy's story in person Wednesday to bring attention to the plight of Test Site workers and their families who may be eligible for federal compensation.

Dr. David Michaels, the DOE's assistant secretary for environment, safety and health, was by Reid's side to offer support to victims and encourage Congress to approve $100 million or more in compensation.

Dorothy leaves for Washington, D.C., today to tell her story to other senators and lobby for the legislation, which would make those who became ill from working on the nation's nuclear weapons production eligible for federal payments.

Workers or their survivors could collect a lump sum of $200,000 or some benefits to help pay the cost of medical care if the legislation passes, Reid said.

Dorothy reconstructed her husband's work in the Test Site tunnels from 1,370 pages of formerly top secret documents kept by the Department of Energy that she obtained with Reid's help.

As she put page after page in order by date, she discovered that her husband had received 12,139 millirems of exposure in less than a year during 1959. Workers were limited to 5,000 millirems annually by the Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor to the Department of Energy.

Then she discovered an Oct. 13, 1959, memo from William S. Johnson, a supervisor at the Test Site, who wrote:

"It would be my recommendation that Mr. Clayton be transferred from his present work assignment to an area where his exposure possibilities would be removed entirely."

But the job transfer never occurred. Glenn Clayton continued to lead recovery teams into the tunnels for 11 years after that memo.

"It's haunting that we didn't know any better," Reid said, standing beside Dorothy in her Henderson home. The Senate minority whip described how he once stood with his family in Searchlight, about 50 miles south of Las Vegas, and watched the atomic bombs light up the dark desert sky.

"We've gotten much better at protecting people's safety," Reid said.

From 1951 until 1992 up to 100,000 workers traveled the 65 miles one way each day to support the Cold War effort to defeat the former Soviet Union, Reid said.

The Test Site workers were ignored in the first draft of the legislation, but Reid ensured the Nevada site was included.

Claude and Elda Albright are hoping that Congress will pass the bill this year.

Claude Albright, 63, worked in every area of the Test Site and suffers lung and colon cancer as well as a tumor in his right shoulder blade. His right lung has been removed.

"They gave us a pair of booties. They'd give us a pair of gloves," Claude recalled. "What good would that do?"

Claude's brother Galen wasn't as lucky. He died from several cancers on May 28, 1999, leaving his widow, Judith, and three daughters, Megan, Karen and Darcy.

Megan is a 16-year-old basketball star at Indian Springs High School. She remembered her father going to chemotherapy and then heading for the gymnasium to see her play, often sickened by the cancer treatments.

"It was the best job, it was steady," Judith said. "They went to work every day and got paid regularly."

She said she is still struggling to pay the medical bills.

The DOE's Michaels sympathized with the Nevada workers and their families. "I know it is not easy to do this, but it is very important for me to bring back your stories to Washington," he said.

"Remember, statistics are people with the tears washed off," Michaels said.