Children may not get nuke benefits

Friday, May 25, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

SUN STAFF, WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Children of nuclear weapons workers are disqualified from $150,000 in compensation if they turned 18 before the parent died of exposure to radiation and other dangerous materials they worked with in the Cold War era.

The families of nuclear employees across the country, including thousands who worked at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 until 1992 when a nuclear weapons test ban became effective, would be affected by the restriction.

The children lose eligibility even if they were underage at the time the parent got sick. The restriction is explained in regulations the Labor Department is releasing on Friday.

"It's a real kick in the teeth to families that have suffered," said Ken Silver, a public health advocate in New Mexico.

Stuart Roy, a Labor Department spokesman, said that part of the regulation followed the instructions of Congress. "Qualified survivors were spelled out in the law," he said.

Cancer, beryllium disease and silicosis -- the diseases for which the government will compensate exposed workers - all can be slow killers.

Congress enacted the program after hearing testimony about workers breathing dense clouds of silica dust with no breathing protection, empty radiation-measuring badges pinned to those working with uranium and a chronic inattention to safety measures during the Cold War. Test Site workers learned during screenings in Las Vegas that dust they inhaled while digging the tunnels to contain underground nuclear explosions had left scars on their lungs.

"The sons and daughters were still affected," even if they were adults at the time the parent died, said Sam Ray of Lucasville, Ohio, who lost his larynx to cancer and now helps fellow workers deal with medical issues.

About 600,000 people worked in nuclear weapons manufacture in 37 states during the Cold War. The Energy Department initially estimated 3,000 to 4,000 might be eligible for the new compensation program, but the accuracy of that estimate is unclear because of poor record keeping over the decades.

The Labor Department, which will handle the paperwork for those benefits, said it initially expects to get about 43,000 applications a year from sick workers and 28,000 applications a year from the families of those who died.

The program offers $150,000 lump-sum payments and lifetime medical care to weapons plant workers exposed to health-robbing levels of radiation, silica or beryllium while working in the nuclear weapons complex.

Most of the survivor payments are expected to go to widows and widowers.

The Labor Department is opening field offices next month to help sick workers and the heirs of deceased workers file claims under the new compensation program, which is supposed to begin July 31.

Sun reporter Mary Manning

and the Associated Press contributed to this story.