Advocates
for nuclear power are using two of the more important issues of the
day — global warming and rising energy costs — to renew
their calls for a construction boom on nuclear power plants. Replace
coal power plants with nuclear power plants, they say, and you'll
reduce global warming emissions. Use more nuclear power, they say,
and we won't be so dependent on fossil fuels.
What you won't
hear them say is what they're going to do with the nuclear waste,
which will remain dangerous to the environment and public health for
thousands of years. And you definitely won't hear them talking about
the health risks posed to nuclear workers. To hear about that, you'll
have to talk to LeRoy Moore, PhD.
LeRoy Moore, PhD, has
worked on nuclear weapons issues for thirty years, with particular
attention to abolition, public health and environmental concerns. He
is a consultant with the Nuclear Nexus Project of the Rocky Mountain
Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, CO; some of his writings are
available at www.rmpjc.org.
By LeRoy Moore, PhD
A few weeks back I heard from a woman,
Mrs. H, who said her father was seriously ill. He had just undergone his second round
of surgery for cancer that he believed resulted from on-the-job
exposure during the 12 years he worked at the now defunct Rocky Flats
nuclear bomb factory near Denver. She wondered if there was any way
the family might get help covering his medical costs. I put her in
touch with a person who could tell her how to apply to a government
program created to provide compensation and medical care for workers
who became ill because they were exposed on-the-job to radioactive
and toxic materials at nuclear weapons production plants like Rocky
Flats.
Just a couple of days later I heard from Mrs. H that her father had died. In my note expressing condolences I urged her to go ahead with the effort to get compensation for the family’s large expenses for her father’s medical care. But even as I did this I hesitated because I know something of the difficulty she’s likely to face trying to get compensation. Why would this be so?
The program in question, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, was enacted into law in 2000 and modified in 2004. It purportedly makes sick nuclear workers eligible for compensation and medical coverage. But in practice the program has not worked well for people like Mrs. H’s father or for survivors like her.
The original intent of the Compensation Program was to shift the burden of proof regarding exposure and resultant harm away from workers and onto their corporate and governmental employers. But the Department of Labor (DOL), which administers the program, requires workers (or their survivors) to prove the link between their illness and their occupation in accord with detailed guidelines. This requirement is particularly difficult for ailing workers or their survivors, especially since workplace exposure records are often incomplete, inaccurate, not available, or non-existent, perhaps even falsified or destroyed. Impediments like this mean that over the years thousands of claims believed by workers to be valid have been denied or delayed. As a result, numerous sick claimants consigned to this bureaucratic limbo have died without any resolution.
Workers insist that much of what happens in the compensation process is not simply unfair; it is illegal, because the DOL and other government agencies don’t really adhere to the law. Mrs. H will ultimately experience many more impediments like this if she follows through with her application to the Compensation Program for help meeting expenses associated with her father's sickness.
Repeatedly over the past seven years, affected workers have organized rallies, testified at public hearings, petitioned government agencies, and lobbied Congress to try to get improvements in the Compensation Program and in the way it is implemented. To my amazement, just days after my exchange with Mrs. H, I learned that sick and disabled nuclear workers are again rallying for reforms -- this Wednesday, June 25. Former Rocky Flats workers invite all who support this cause to join them Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM on the walk outside the Department of Labor offices at 1999 Broadway at Welton in Denver. Simultaneous rallies will take place in Española, NM; Cleveland, OH; and Oak Ridge, TN (for details on rally locations, see http://www.metaltrades.org).
Workers rallying this week have prepared a petition to Congress specifying needed reforms. The petition says they “are tired of the waste and fraud perpetrated by the federal agencies administering” the Compensation Act. The petition asks Congress to do the following:
- change the law to allow claims to move ahead wherever records are incomplete;
- cover all cancers, not just the 22 that are currently covered;
- add cost-of-living increases to the compensation payments;
- appoint a board to oversee the implementation of the reform legislation; and
- include medical diagnostic testing for all sick workers.
For affected workers the Compensation Program has become a bureaucratic nightmare. Those petitioning Congress call for “additional reforms to be legislated immediately and without further delay for these deserving claimants and their families.” When I attend the rally in Denver this Wednesday, I’ll have Mrs. H and her father in mind. Your presence at the rally in Denver or elsewhere will show your support (for a detailed account of worker complaints about how the Compensation Program is administered, see http://www.dol.gov/eeombd/2007annualreport/index.htm).
