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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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