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A compensation program for ill nuclear workers won key approval Tuesday to offer automatic $150,000 payments to potentially hundreds more Hanford workers or their survivors. An advisory committee to the federal government meeting in New York voted unanimously to further ease compensation requirements for Hanford workers who may have developed any of a wide range of cancers due to radiation exposure on the job. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, now is expected to recommend the eased rules, called a special exposure cohort, to Congress. If Congress does not object, the special exposure cohort would be formed. Under the special exposure cohort, automatic $150,000 compensation and medical coverage would be extended to any Hanford worker who was employed for at least 250 days from Oct. 1, 1943, through June 30, 1972. That's more inclusive than previous decisions to ease rules only for workers assigned to specific Hanford areas for certain of those years.

A compensation program for ill nuclear workers won key approval Tuesday to offer automatic $150,000 payments to potentially hundreds more Hanford workers or their survivors. An advisory committee to the federal government meeting in New York voted unanimously to further ease compensation requirements for Hanford workers who may have developed any of a wide range of cancers due to radiation exposure on the job. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, now is expected to recommend the eased rules, called a special exposure cohort, to Congress. If Congress does not object, the special exposure cohort would be formed. Under the special exposure cohort, automatic $150,000 compensation and medical coverage would be extended to any Hanford worker who was employed for at least 250 days from Oct. 1, 1943, through June 30, 1972. That's more inclusive than previous decisions to ease rules only for workers assigned to specific Hanford areas for certain of those years.

Southern Co. employs a unique type of active tag to track employees' locations at its training center, as well as teach them how to avoid excessive radiation exposure. May 18, 2009-Southern Co. has completed a pilot testing an RFID-based system to train employees in how to limit their exposure to radiation. The RFID system, provided by Q-Track, feeds a worker's location data to software that then calculates the level of exposure that person would have received in a real-world scenario. It's part of a simulated environment intended to train future employees of the electric utility company's Plant Vogtle nuclear facility-located in Waynesboro, Ga.-how to gauge their exposure. Staff members are instructed to base their radiation exposure on a floor map of the factory that demarks the locations of radiation hot spots, as well as to employ dosimeter readers displaying the cumulative level of radiation encountered.

"Cesium that has fallen and been disturbed from the ground surface- 10 times more internal exposure compared to direct inhalation - JAEA Analysis Japan Atomic Energy Agency [JAEA] (Toukai Village, Ibaragi Prefecture) compiled analyses showing that the amount of internal exposure to radioactive cesium from particles that had landed on the ground once and then been disturbed and re-floated was 10 times larger than that of inhaling the airborne particles directly. [This study] will be presented on September 22nd at the Japan Atomic Power Conference that's presently being held in Kitakyushuu City. The JAEA Safety Research Center's research fellow Kimura Masanori (Radiological Protection) points out that "an emphasis needs to be placed to prevent re-floating from the ground surface". Using the survey data of TEPCO and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology collected in Minamisouma City, Fukushima Prefecture, the amounts of internal exposure to Iodine-131, Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 caused by airborne particles (March 20-May 19) and that of re-floated particles (April 3-June 4) were calculated."

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

At least 19 Norton Co. workers who have cancer - perhaps caused through exposure five decades ago to nuclear materials such as uranium and thorium - will receive compensation and benefits from the federal government. Their survivors may be eligible as well. The U.S. Department of Labor announced yesterday that all former Norton Co. employees who worked at the Worcester plant between Jan. 1, 1945, and Dec. 31, 1957, are part of a "special exposure cohort" that entitles them to the compensation and benefits. To be eligible, workers must have worked for at least 250 days at the plant, according to Michael Volpe, a Department of Labor spokesman. The workers must also have developed one of 22 cancers considered likely to have been caused by exposure to radioactive material. Those cancers include lung cancer, leukemia, bone cancer, liver cancer, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, renal cancer, as well as a long list of other cancers.

At least 19 Norton Co. workers who have cancer - perhaps caused through exposure five decades ago to nuclear materials such as uranium and thorium - will receive compensation and benefits from the federal government. Their survivors may be eligible as well. The U.S. Department of Labor announced yesterday that all former Norton Co. employees who worked at the Worcester plant between Jan. 1, 1945, and Dec. 31, 1957, are part of a "special exposure cohort" that entitles them to the compensation and benefits. To be eligible, workers must have worked for at least 250 days at the plant, according to Michael Volpe, a Department of Labor spokesman. The workers must also have developed one of 22 cancers considered likely to have been caused by exposure to radioactive material. Those cancers include lung cancer, leukemia, bone cancer, liver cancer, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, renal cancer, as well as a long list of other cancers.

"A radiation medicine expert has concluded the former head of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant did not become ill as a result of radiation exposure, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday. Makoto Akashi, executive director of the National Institute of Radiological Science, reviewed the cumulative amount of radiation Masao Yoshida, 56, was exposed to since the nuclear crisis started in March and informed Tepco of his view Thursday night, the utility said. Yoshida was relieved of his post Thursday to undergo medical treatment. He was hospitalized Nov. 24. There has been much speculation that his illness was caused by excessive radiation exposure, as he had led efforts to contain the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 plant after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out three reactors. But the utility again declined to disclose further details on Yoshida's illness or his cumulative radiation exposure since the nuclear crisis started, citing privacy reasons."

"Resource will help workers more accurately determine chemical exposure level, get compensation faster Thursday, July 15,2010 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that a new online database is available for former Hanford workers whose health has been adversely affected on the jobsite to help them determine the extent of their exposure to toxic chemicals and get more information about related illnesses. Compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy, the online database, called the Site Exposure Matrix (SEM), is available to former nuclear weapons facilities employees covered by Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP). After its May 10 announcement of the database's planned launch, DOE released the SEMs for 48 nuclear sites quickly but did not immediately release others, including one for the Hanford site. On June 25, 2010, Senators Cantwell and Murray sent a letter to DOE and the Department of Labor requesting the speedy release of a Site Exposure Matrix for Hanford. Within days, DOE responded that it has approved the release of the Hanford SEM along with matrices for 20 other sites."

"Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 66 nuclear weapons on or near Bikini and Enewetak atolls, which had previously been evacuated. Populations living elsewhere in the Marshall Islands archipelago were exposed to measurable levels of radioactive fallout from 20 of these tests. In this carefully considered analysis, National Cancer Institute (NCI) experts estimate that as much as 1.6% of all cancers among those residents of the Marshall Islands alive between 1948 and 1970 might be attributable to radiation exposures resulting from nuclear testing fallout. Due to uncertainly inherent to these analyses, the authors calculated a 90% confidence interval of 0.4% to 3.6%. Why did the NCI investigate this exposure? In June 2004, the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources asked the NCI to provide its expert opinion on the baseline cancer risk and number of cancers expected among residents of the Marshall Islands as a result of exposures to radioactive fallout from U.S. nuclear weapons tests that were conducted there from 1946 through 1958. In September 2004, the NCI provided the Committee with preliminary cancer risk estimates and a discussion of their basis in a report titled Estimation of the Baseline Number of Cancers Among Marshallese and the Number of Cancers Attributable to Exposure to Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Testing Conducted in the Marshall Islands. That analysis was based on a number of conservative assumptions designed to avoid underestimating the actual cancer risks and used information that could be collected quickly to provide a timely response. "

On October 5, 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act ("RECA" or "the Act"), 42 U.S.C. § 2210 note, providing for compassionate payments to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases as a result of their exposure to radiation released during above-ground nuclear weapons tests or as a result of their exposure to radiation during employment in underground uranium mines. The 1990 Act provided fixed payments in the following amounts: $50,000 to individuals residing or working "downwind" of The Nevada Test Site; $75,000 for workers participating in above-ground nuclear weapons tests; and $100,000 for uranium miners.

Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act providing for compassionate payments to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases as a result of their exposure to radiation released during above-ground nuclear weapons tests or as a result of their exposure to radiation during employment in underground uranium mines. Northern Arizona RESEP (Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program) through North Country HealthCare is set up to provide education to the public concerning the effects of nuclear radiation due to nuclear fallout or nuclear materials such as uranium.

"When the U.S. Government began testing nuclear weapons between July 1945 and November 1962, about the only things test officials were sure of was that the bombs made big explosions and intriguing mushroom clouds. Since then, scientists and doctors have identified the deadly effects of radiation poisoning. Representatives from the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program (RESEP) offer an educational lecture forum at 9 a.m. Thursday at Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives, 115 S. McCormick St., in Prescott. "Commonly known as the 'Downwinder Program,' RESEP helps individuals who live, or lived, in areas where U.S. nuclear weapons testing occurred," Sharlot Hall archivist Scott Anderson wrote in a press release. "The RESEP website lists Arizona as a high impact state." The Health Resources and Services Administration, which is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, oversees the radiation exposure program. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Program offers compensation payments from $50,000 to $100,000 for specific cancers and chronic diseases that may have resulted from radiation exposure. Sharlot Hall Museum Archives is one of the statewide locations where residents can search for proof of residency during the testing periods in order to file a claim for compensation."

"The Department of Labor (DOL) Site Exposure Matrices (SEM) Website is a repository of information gathered from a variety of sources regarding toxic substances present at Department of Energy (DOE) and Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) facilities covered under Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). In putting together SEM, DOL held round table meetings with workers from DOE facilities all over the country and gathered their input on the hazards at these sites. DOL also obtained copies of thousands of documents from DOE regarding toxic substances at those facilities. In addition to toxic substance information, the SEM Website also contains information regarding scientifically established links between toxic substances and illnesses. Displayed links for diagnosed illnesses show how these correlate to toxic substance exposures. The relationship between toxic substances and diagnosed illnesses shown in SEM is derived from records of research by recognized medical authorities maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). DOL continually updates these relationships as new disease associations are recognized by NLM. The causal links provided by NLM do not represent an exclusive list of the pathways necessary for an affirmative Part E causation determination. Every case is evaluated on its own evidentiary merits. (Please note, however that SEM does not address the relationship between radiation and cancer. For purposes of EEOICPA, the relationship between radiation and cancer is evaluated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH))."

"The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis broke out following the March 11 quake and tsunami, and apparently inhaled radioactive substances scattered by hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. The revelation has prompted local municipalities in Fukushima to consider checking residents' internal exposure to radiation."

"U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch is asking a national panel to take a fresh look at the science behind the government's program for compensating people who were injured by exposure to atomic-testing fallout and the uranium industry. Sponsor of the original Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), Hatch put the request in a letter Monday to the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences. His letter comes two weeks after the Utah Republican panned bipartisan legislation in Congress to expand RECA as overbroad and too expensive. "When I worked to enact the original RECA law to help Utahns exposed to radiation, the policy was based on scientific evidence -- an absolute must when you're talking about Hatch RECA letter (pdf) these types of programs," he said Tuesday. "The goal of the letter to the National Academy of Sciences [NAS] is to see whether or not new scientific data exists to justify expanding the RECA program; in the past it did not," he added. "I want NAS to examine the data and talk with Utah radiation victims to see if that is justified before anyone puts more taxpayer dollars on the line." Companion bills in the House and the Senate would expand RECA eligibility to those who suffered from exposure in seven states: New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Only those in certain counties in three states are now eligible to apply for payments from the fund of $50,000, $100,000 or $150,000, depending Advertisement on whether they were exposed as millers, miners, ore transporters, atomic program employees or downwinders. The Utah counties now covered include: Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne. The federal government's current program has paid nearly $1.5 billion to more than 22,000 people. Some 4,776 of them are Utahns who have received nearly $275 million from the federal program. "

"Nearly two months after the start of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, only 10 percent of workers there had been tested for internal radiation exposure caused by inhalation or ingestion of radioactive substances, due to a shortage of testing equipment available for them. Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled nuclear compound, is finding it impossible to use testing apparatus set up inside the facility because of high radiation levels recorded near the equipment. A number of personnel working to overcome the nuclear crisis at the facility are increasingly alarmed by their lack of internal exposure testing. Some have said they may have to continue to work at the facility without knowing whether their radiation exposure levels have exceeded the upper limit set by the government. On Tuesday, the government revealed a timetable for ending the nuclear crisis. The road map called for increased surveillance of the workers' radiation levels, including a measure requiring TEPCO to periodically report such data to the government."

"Senators want uranium compensation on fast track Colorado's two U.S. senators are seeking a hearing on a bill that would expand the compensation program for the nation's nuclear-weapons industry workers. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, both Democrats, wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-N.J., urging a quick hearing on the measure, S. 3224, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2010. The measure "would address key deficiencies in RECA, and extend compensation to a number of currently unqualified but suffering uranium workers and downwinders," the senators wrote. The amendments would expand the qualifications for compensation for radiation exposure to include post-1971 uranium workers for compensation; equalize compensation for all claimants to $150,000; expand the downwind exposure area to include seven states; and fund an epidemiological study of the health impacts on families of uranium workers and residents of uranium-development communities. "

"The recent acceptance of $8.3 billion in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees by the builders of the Vogtle nuclear reactors seems like good news for Georgia electric customers. The taxpayers of the entire country will now share in the costs and risks that had been on the shoulders of the customers of the utilities building the two reactors. But don't celebrate too soon. There are more loan guarantees in the pipeline - a total of $54.5 billion, none for Georgia reactors. These guarantees mean that you and I will repay the lender if the project cannot. The $54.5 billion would amount to an exposure of more than $500 for every American family. Some in Congress want unlimited nuclear loan guarantees, which translate to unlimited taxpayer exposure. For each of these loan guarantees, Georgia taxpayers will be exposed to the risks of new nuclear construction in such places as Texas, Maryland and South Carolina. Before long, the costs Georgians have passed on to taxpayers elsewhere through the Vogtle loan guarantees may be outweighed by the economic exposure that they will take on to help build reactors elsewhere."

A new study of Hanford and other nuclear defense site workers found exposure to low levels of radiation slightly increased the risk that workers would die of leukemia. The study was conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal research agency, and looked at doses that a worker at a nuclear site might receive over a lifetime of work. Previous studies that look at a correlation between exposure and leukemia typically have looked at higher levels of exposure, according to NIOSH.

In the latest issue of the journal Public Health Reports, there is debate about the role that beryllium giant Brush Wellman played in stalling OSHA action on beryllium, and whether Brush waged a public relations campaign to minimize the hazards of the toxic metal. In an article in the January-February 2008 issue of Public Health Reports, David Michaels and Celeste Monforton of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) explored how the beryllium industry fought efforts to lower workplace beryllium exposure limits, first by the Department of Energy (DOE) and then by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In "Beryllium's Public Relations Problem: Protecting Workers When There is No Safe Exposure Level," Michaels and Monforton criticized Brush Wellman for its efforts to prevent these agencies from lowering exposure limits for beryllium.

Beryllium is a remarkable metal. It is stiffer than steel, lighter than aluminum, and causes chronic beryllium disease at very low levels of exposure. It is also causes cancer in humans. There is no evidence of a safe exposure level. Beryllium has long been employed in nuclear and defense operations, and is now being used in bicycle frames and other consumer products. The current OSHA workplace exposure standard was developed in a 1948 discussion held in the back seat of a taxi by two Atomic Energy Commission scientists - for this reason it is known as the "taxicab standard". This standard is widely acknowledged to be insufficiently protective, and workers exposed to levels below the standard have developed beryllium-related disease.