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Sick Nuclear Workers Receive Checks
Index:
Sick Nuclear Workers Receive Checks
Chao Holds Compensation Ceremony
Taiwan decides against nuclear power plant referendum
Plutonium Plan Faces Overhaul
===================================
Sick Nuclear Workers Receive Checks
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) - With knees trembling, Clara Harding clutched a
$150,000 benefit check Thursday as U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
presented the first payment from a compensation program for sick
nuclear workers.
``I haven't slept in three days, and I was up at 4 a.m. this
morning,'' Harding, 78, said. Her husband, Joe, died more than 20
years ago after being exposed to toxic levels of uranium at the
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
The Department of Labor began accepting claims on July 31. The
$150,000 lump-sum payments will go to former workers who have certain
types of cancer and who worked at the plant before 1992. If the
worker has died, the money will go to a surviving spouse, and, in
some cases, to surviving children.
``There is no more poignant example of how people can transform their
trials into triumphs than the tender story of Joe and Clara
Harding,'' Chao said after the presentation.
David Fuller, president of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and
Energy Workers Local 5-550, said it was gratifying.
``Joe Harding was a member of our union and a co-worker of mine. It's
been a long and frustrating battle to get to this day,'' Fuller said.
Before Joe Harding died of cancer in 1980, his bones were found to
contain up to 34,000 times the expected concentration of uranium. Yet
while he lived, he was denied compensation because official records
showed he was only exposed to small levels of radiation.
However, his widow and daughter, Martha Alls, continued to fight
after his death.
Clara Harding said she will continue to work for sick workers.
``I'm going to help anyone who needs it so their families can be
compensated for what has happened,'' she said. ``But at least the
pressure is off of me now.''
The Energy Department has identified 317 sites that employed more
than 600,000 people in 37 states, Washington D.C., the Marshall
Islands and Puerto Rico for nuclear weapons-related work during the
Cold War. Sick workers employed at those facilities might qualify for
compensation under the program, which is estimated to cost $1.9
billion over a decade.
On the Net:
Labor Department Office of Workers' Compensation Programs:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/owcp-org.htm
Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov/
-----------------
Chao Holds Compensation Ceremony; Program Clara Harding Helped Create
Awards Her the First Compensation
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Secretary of Labor Elaine L.
Chao presented the first compensation check under a new program for
sick nuclear weapons employees, former employees and survivors in
Paducah, Kentucky today. Clara Harding, the widow of former Paducah
Gaseous Diffusion Plant employee Joe T. Harding, was the first person
to receive compensation under this new program.
"Today we celebrate something more than just the successful beginning
of a new program," said Chao. "We celebrate the triumph of the human
spirit, the ability to overcome difficulty and even tragedy to bring
about something that is of great value."
Joe Harding died at age 58 in March 1980 of abdominal cancer. He
worked at the Paducah plant for nearly 20 years, from 1952 until
1971. Clara Harding has been a vocal advocate for recognition and
compensation of nuclear workers who became ill while working at the
Paducah Plant.
"Out of personal tragedy, Joe and Clara Harding fought for and won an
amazing victory, not just for themselves alone, but for thousands and
thousands of workers in America's nuclear weapons industry," Chao
said.
On October 30, 2000, two decades after Harding's death and a month
after Mrs. Harding testified at a Washington hearing on the proposed
bill, Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act. In addition to the lump-sum compensation
for employees or their survivors, the law pays medical expenses for
covered illnesses.
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act
went into effect July 31, 2001. Congress passed the new law to
compensate nuclear weapons employees of the Department of Energy and
its contractors or subcontractors who became seriously ill because of
exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica on the job. It also
compensates some surviving family members.
The U.S. Labor Department, which administers compensation and medical
benefits under the new law, has received thousands of claim forms
since June, when it launched a series of town hall meetings to
explain the law and claims process.
Details about the law are available on the Internet at www.dol.gov or
by calling, toll-free, 1-866-888-3322.
-----------------
Taiwan decides against nuclear power plant referendum
TAIPEI, Aug. 10 (Kyodo) - Taiwan's government said Friday it has
decided against holding a referendum on the island's partly built
fourth nuclear power plant during a year-end election, apparently in
a bid to avoid a rerun of acrimonious confrontation between the
government and the opposition-controlled legislature over the issue.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Chiou I-jen said Premier Chang Chun-hsiung
decided to scrap plans for the nonbinding referendum because of
potentially negative fallout from holding it.
Chiou also said that Chang, who advocates phasing out nuclear power
in Taiwan, apologized for not delivering on his earlier pledge to
hold a referendum to determine the plant's fate.
Chang's decision was based on recommendations from a five-member
panel tasked with evaluating the feasibility of holding a referendum
in conjunction with the Dec. 1 elections for lawmakers and local
government chiefs.
Chiou pointed to manpower constraints in holding an islandwide poll
on the controversial plant, organizational and administrative
problems and possible repercussions for an already slowing domestic
economy.
But he said the panel concluded that a referendum would not deal a
major blow to the economy.
Chang's decision was widely expected although hard-liners within the
ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which has an antinuclear
platform, continued to push for a referendum.
Former DPP Chairman Lin I-hsiung did not mince words last month in
saying that anyone opposed to the referendum was not qualified to
hold public office in a democratic nation.
Vice President Annette Lu, however, who is opposed to nuclear power,
said earlier this month it would not be wise to reopen the door to
the sort of political infighting over the plant that nearly cost
President Chen Shui-bian the presidency last year.
Last October, Chang announced the nuclear plant, being built some 40
kilometers east of Taipei, would be scrapped, leading to a major
showdown with the pro-nuclear opposition parties, which threatened to
remove Chen from office.
The cabinet resumed construction of the plant in February after
Taiwan's Constitution-interpreting body ruled that the decision to
scrap the plant was procedurally flawed.
To make the resumption of construction more palatable to the
antinuclear camp, the government at the time hinted that the plant
could still be vetoed through a referendum held during the year-end
elections.
However, with Taiwan now mired in its worst economic downturn in
decades, voters want concerted action on rising unemployment and
other economic woes rather than partisan political squabbles, making
the nuclear plant an untimely and unpopular election issue.
-----------------
Plutonium Plan Faces Overhaul
WASHINGTON (AP) - Aug 10 - The Energy Department is revamping a
Clinton-era plan to dispose of 50 metric tons of surplus plutonium
amid cost overruns, prompting threats from South Carolina's governor
to block shipments into the state.
An Energy Department report, made public Thursday by a private group,
concludes that the cost of disposing of the plutonium will be at
least $6.6 billion over 22 years, about 50 percent more than
estimated two years ago.
At the same time, the Bush administration has put on hold part of the
program that called for some of the plutonium to be put in glass logs
for eventual burial at the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository in
Nevada, once that facility is approved.
That decision has brought complaints from South Carolina officials
who are concerned that the department will ship tons of plutonium
from its weapons facilities into the state for processing with no
assurance the material will ever leave the state.
``When South Carolina agreed to accept plutonium ... DOE agreed that
there would a clear exit strategy,'' South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges
said recently.
Hodges, a Democrat, said the ``shifting nature'' of the government's
plutonium disposition strategy suggests that the Energy Department
``plans to renege on many of its prior commitments'' to the state.
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said that Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham, who talked with Hodges earlier this week, is eager
to resolve the dispute.
In 1999, the Clinton administration announced a ``dual strategy'' for
getting rid of the excess plutonium from Cold War-era warheads and
plutonium found at various weapons facilities. Under the plan, 33
metric tons would be converted into a mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for
burning in civilian power reactors. Another 17 metric tons, thought
too impure for conversion would be immobilized in glass containers
and eventually buried in Nevada.
But earlier this year, the administration stopped funding the
immobilization program and announced the entire plutonium disposal
plan was being reviewed.
Abraham said that it was too expensive to pursue both programs and
that the department would focus for now on building the MOX
conversion facilities at the Savannah River complex. He suggested
that the immobilization track would be resumed later.
But South Carolina officials fear that might never happen.
``The dual track was an essential component of our agreement,''
insists Hodges, pledging that if he is not assured of a ``timely exit
strategy'' he would block shipments into the state - raising the
specter of a standoff with federal officials.
Years ago, Idaho's governor dispatched the highway patrol and set up
roadblocks to keep nuclear spent fuel shipments out of that state
until a settlement was reached with the Energy Department.
Meanwhile, an Energy Department report released Thursday by the
Nuclear Control Institute, a Washington-based advocacy group involved
in nuclear nonproliferation issues, showed the cost of the program
has grown from about $4.4 billion in 1999 to $6.6 billion over its 22-
year life.
``This shows a massive cost escalation,'' said Tom Clements, the
group's executive director, adding it calls into question the MOX
option which represents most of the increase. The institute opposes
using plutonium for civilian reactors and argues all of it should be
put in glass to reduce the risks of nuclear proliferation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100
Director, Technical Extension 2306
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service Fax:(714) 668-3149
ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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