Benefit changes for nuke workers explained

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

Labor Department town hall meetings on the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act will be 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. today at Texas Station. The Resource Center is at Flamingo Executive Park, 1050 E. Flamingo Road, Suite W- 156. Call (866) 697-0841.

When Nevada Test Site worker Jack Hyatt had to have a chest X-ray before knee surgery in 1991, doctors discovered he had lung cancer and cancer destroying his ribs.

The doctors gave the crane operator and mechanic less than a year to live, his widow, Sally Hyatt, said Tuesday night at a town hall meeting to inform nuclear workers and their survivors, who include Hyatt, about changes in a federal compensation program.

"He didn't show any signs of cancer or illness," Sally Hyatt said of her husband's health prior to his diagnosis. "He was a person who was never sick."

Diagnosed in July of 1991, Jack Hyatt died at age 59 on Feb. 16, 1992, after 27 years working at the Test Site, where the federal government exploded nuclear weapons above and below ground from 1951 until 1992.

Hyatt's widow began applying for compensation from the Energy Department in July 2001 and said she never received a dime.

"I just keep getting the runaround," Hyatt said.

"I know he worked all day under the Baneberry shot," Hyatt said, although her husband never told her what he did at the site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The fallout cloud from the Baneberry experiment in December 1970 exposed workers at the Test Site to radioactive particles.

Hyatt worked with the late Glenn Taylor whose widow, Dorothy, is one of eight successful paid claims of $150,000 apiece based on radiation exposure that has been sparingly doled out by the Energy Department.

However, Congress changed the program in October 2004.

The federal Department of Labor has the task of providing a more streamlined benefits and compensation package, said John Vance, chief of outreach and technical assistance for the department's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation program.

The Labor Department's benefits program needs rules before it can begin paying for workers' exposures to toxic chemicals or materials, Vance said. The rules should be ready by May, but that didn't stop department employees from answering questions and handing out forms to those interested.

Test Site workers primarily have applied for benefits for beryllium exposure and cancers related to radiation exposure, he said. There is no state-by-state breakdown, but since the Labor Department took control, the program has paid out 188 claims for a total of $23.5 million, Vance said.

"It's an acknowledgement of the sacrifices these people made during nuclear experiments," Vance said after a two-hour meeting that drew more than 50 people to its Texas Station location, where nuclear workers can learn how to apply for benefits today at 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m.

Dorothy Clayton couldn't agree more with Vance's statement.

Clayton's late husband worked on recovery teams in the testing tunnels after nuclear weapons experiments.

Clayton received her payment in October 2002.

"It's definitely limped along," she said of the Energy Department's track record for almost four years.

She believes the Labor Department will speed payments to surviving workers or their families.

"I think things are going to get better," Clayton said. "It's a disgrace the way the Department of Energy handled it."

For Wimon Thompson, the discussion brought tears to her eyes as she remembered her late husband, Frank Thompson.

Thompson worked at the Test Site for 33 years and died Nov. 26, 1995, from cancer at the age of 61.

"I was 5 years old when he died," said 15-year-old Crystal Thompson, who dreams of going to the university some day.

"I want her to go to college," said Wimon Thompson, dabbing at her tear-streaked cheeks. But when Crystal turns 16 next year, she is afraid of losing Social Security benefits.

A Labor Department representative talked to the Thompsons and gave them forms to start the process of receiving benefits through the revamped program.

Maq Bukhari said he worked for 15 years at the Test Site for major contractor Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Company. He's working in the private sector now, but has been diagnosed with sensitivity to the metal beryllium.

Beryllium is a metal used in the making of nuclear weapons and its dust can cause first lung sensitivity and then a chronic lung disease, Vance said. Bukhari will also need checkups about every two years that are covered by the compensation program.

Vance guided Bukhari through the confusing alphabet soup of the benefits package, suggesting he apply for $150,000 in a lump sum and then apply for extra payments for lost wages.

John Taylor and Hollis Brown, both long-time former workers at the Test Site, asked about hearing loss from machinery noise in underground tunnels.

"I don't expect to receive anything," said Brown, who leaned on a cane. He worked "off and on" at the Test Site from 1951 until he retired in 1986.

Taylor, who stood at a roadblock on the site as the fallout cloud from Baneberry shrouded him in radiation, said he had little luck in finding his radiation exposure records. Insurance has refused to pay him, he said.

Those unable to attend the town hall meetings can visit the Resource Center in Las Vegas, 1050 E. Flamingo Road, Suite W-156, or call (702) 697-0841 or toll free at 1-866-697-0841.