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House Expands Radiation Payments



House Expands Radiation Payments

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted Tuesday to expand a federal program 
that pays up to $100,000 to people sickened by Cold War-era uranium 
mining and nuclear weapons tests. 

The bill adds to the list of cancers and other diseases that make 
former miners or nuclear test ``downwinders'' eligible for payments 
under the 1990 law. The measure also expands the sites where miners 
and downwinders can seek compensation, and adds open-pit uranium 
miners and those who transported or milled uranium. 

The expansion will provide compensation to about 9,600 people ``who 
lost their health and in many cases their lives working for this 
country's nuclear defense program,'' said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. 

``We as a nation owe these people what this bill allows for,'' he 
said before the House approved the bill on a voice vote. 

The measure now goes to the White House for President Clinton's 
signature. The Senate approved it in December. 

Much of the uranium used in nuclear weapons produced during the Cold 
War was mined in the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, 
Colorado and Utah, while above-ground nuclear tests were detonated in 
New Mexico and Nevada. 

The sponsors of the 1990 law sought the enhancements, saying the 
original law was too narrow and too many people with legitimate 
claims were denied. As of March 1, the Justice Department had paid 
3,302 claims worth $244 million and denied another 3,500 claims. 

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the changes would cost 
about $750 million during the next five years. 

Still, some former miners have said the latest bill isn't broad 
enough because it does not increase the compensation amount, cover 
miners who worked after 1971 or include all the illnesses miners say 
radiation caused. 

Among other things, the bill would extend eligibility to uranium 
workers from South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Oregon and Texas. The 
current law covers Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and 
Washington state. 

Other provisions include: 

Adding leukemia and cancers of the lung, thyroid, brain, kidney, 
esophagus and stomach to the list of cancers that make miners 
eligible for compensation. Kidney disease and two lung ailments also 
would be added to the list. 

For downwinders - people who lived in areas of Nevada, Utah and 
Arizona most affected by nuclear fallout from tests - the added 
cancers include leukemia and those of the brain, bladder, colon, 
ovaries and salivary glands. 

Eliminating provisions that give less money to downwinders or miners 
who smoked. 

Cutting the average time a person had to work in uranium mines from 
just under 20 years to less than four. 

Requiring the Justice Department to take American Indian law and 
custom into account when processing applications. Navajo officials 
have complained that widows of dead miners have been denied 
compensation because they were married in traditional Indian 
ceremonies and do not have marriage certificates. 

Spending up to $20 million a year for community health centers and 
state health departments to screen for claims. 

On the Net: 

Justice Department's Radiation Exposure Compensation Program: 

http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm 

Energy Department report on uranium miners: 

http://tis-nt.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/uranium/index.html 

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