Nuclear fallout bill aids few in Nevada

Wednesday, June 28, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

A bill that will expand a federal program that pays up to $100,000 to people sickened by Cold War-era uranium mining and nuclear weapons tests is expected to do little to help afflicted Southern Nevadans.

However, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., says that the measure passed by voice vote of the the House Tuesday is "a good step" in the right direction.

"The congresswoman says this bill does not strike at the core of the matter but it is progression -- a good step that brings us closer" to helping ailing Nevada Test Site workers, said Michael O'Donovan, Berkley's press secretary.

The bill adds to the list of cancers and other diseases that make former miners or nuclear test "downwinders" -- mostly people in Utah, Arizona and some parts of Nevada -- eligible for payments under the 1990 law.

For downwinders, the bill adds compensation for leukemia and cancers of the brain, bladder, colon, ovaries and salivary glands.

O'Donovan says "very few Nevadans will benefit meaningfully from this bill," because Test Site workers and others in Clark County are considered "upwinders."

"She (Berkley) has introduced amendments to the defense authorization bill that would address illnesses most prevalent in Nevada like silicosis (a massive fibrosis of the lungs that is caused by prolonged inhalation of silica dust) and forms of cancer caused by exposure to radiation."

O'Donovan said a small number of Nevadans who were north of the Test Site during the Cold War era may benefit from Tuesday's passage of the measure that now goes to the White House for President Clinton's signature. The Senate approved the bill in December.

Above-ground tests were detonated in New Mexico and Nevada during the Cold War.

The measure passed Tuesday expands the sites where miners and downwinders can seek compensation, and adds open-pit uranium miners and those who transported or milled uranium.

Sun reporter Ed Koch and the Associated Press contributed to this report.