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"The U.S. Department of Labor is notifying all former Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory employees who worked at the Berkeley, Calif., site between Aug. 13, 1942, and Dec. 31, 1961, about a new class of employees added to the Special Exposure Cohort of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The act provides compensation and medical benefits to workers who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. Survivors of qualified workers may also be entitled to benefits. A worker who is included in a designated SEC class of employees, and who is diagnosed with one of 22 specified cancers, may receive a presumption of causation under the EEOICPA. On April 5, 2010, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: all employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., from Aug. 13, 1942, through Dec. 31, 1961, for at least 250 workdays occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with workdays within other classes of employees in the SEC. This designation became effective on May 5, 2010. The Labor Department's role is to adjudicate these claims based on the new SEC class definitions as determined and introduced by HHS. "

The final decision on whether most sick and dying Rocky Flats workers are eligible for medical and financial aid came in a flurry of last-minute meetings in the waning days of the Bush administration. When the decision landed in a FedEx envelope on the front porch of former Flats worker Jennifer Thompson this week, she wasn't surprised at the answer. Denied again.

Colorado's congressional delegation believes a new president might help the chances that former workers at the old Rocky Flats will get compensation. The plant north of Golden made nuclear weapons components until 1991. Workers say they suffered from cancer and other illnesses. They were denied compensation but the Health and Human Services Department is considering an appeal.

Several members of Colorado's congressional delegation want the federal government to delay a decision on compensation for former Rocky Flats workers until the new administration takes over. Sens. Mark Udall and Ken Salazar and five Colorado members of the House - all Democrats - signed the letter sent Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. Leavitt is considering an appeal of a decision rejecting a special status for former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons workers that would compensate them for cancer or other job-related diseases. Colorado officials say there are several problems with the data and the process and want the government to defer a decision on the appeal.

The federal government has failed to act on information that could help sick and dying Rocky Flats workers - or their survivors, the Rocky Mountain News has learned. A year ago, the Rocky reported that Colorado officials have data showing thousands of Flats workers were exposed to the type of radiation that was supposed to automatically qualify them for medical care and compensation if they developed certain cancers. At the time, federal officials dismissed the data as nothing new.

Hanford workers took their worry and frustration over changes in the way some radioactive waste will be handled to the sidewalk Thursday across from the Federal Building in Richland. About two dozen workers took vacation time Thursday afternoon to protest in front of the Federal Building, home to many Department of Energy offices. By 5 p.m. their number had grown to about 50, most of them gathered along nearby George Washington Way as the after-work Hanford traffic cruised by.

Union workers in Hanford, Wash., protested the Federal Building in nearby Richland Thursday to call attention to changes in the way some radioactive waste will be handled, the Tri-City Herald newspaper reported. As many as 50 workers held signs saying "Tri-City $$$ going to Idaho" and "Don't Outsource Employment" cars from the Department of Energy site in Hanford slowed and honked. DOE plans to send 1,000 drums of transuranic waste - most of it debris contaminated with plutonium - to Idaho for compaction and then shipment to a repository in New Mexico for disposal, the paper reported.

Five others join Salazar, Allard in signing letter Pressure is mounting for the investigative arm of Congress to probe how the federal government is treating sick nuclear weapons workers. Meanwhile, officials from the agency responsible for compensating the workers have been to Capitol Hill this week defending their work.

A former examiner with the Department of Labor program to compensate ill Hanford workers plans to bring her concerns to the Tri-Cities today. Attorney Anne Block formerly worked in Seattle for the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program and now is teaming with Hanford Challenge to help workers and their survivors receive compensation.

Two Colorado congressmen want the investigative arm of Congress to scrutinize the way the U.S. Department of Labor is handling claims of sick nuclear weapons workers. Democrats Mark Udall and Ed Perlmutter say they will call today for an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, an independent, nonpartisan agency that investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

Above is a 14-minute video of an interview with sick worker Vina Colley, who was an employee at the Portsmouth/Piketon Ohio uranium enrichment and gaseous diffusion plant, now operated by United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC). Colley details her illnesses, workplace problems, her employment and her efforts to obtain medical help and monetary compensation. She is co-founder of PRESS, the Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security, and part of National Nuclear Workers for Justice. If you have trouble viewing the video, a lower-connection-speed version is viewable on this web page ...

The Alliance for Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups is asking congressional panels to investigate issues that reportedly skewed an investigation by the Dept. of Labor's Inspector General into the claims process for sick nuclear workers and undid a scheduled interview with a key informant (Ann Block). Here's a copy of letter sent today by ANWAG.

Hundreds of former workers stricken by cancer and their families gathered in Richland Thursday in search of more money. The meeting comes after the U.S. Department of Labor extended benefits for former workers.

A former Energy Department contract employee has been denied an illness compensation claim solely because he worked at Area 51, though federal officials years ago told base contract workers they would receive the same consideration as Nevada Test Site workers who became ill. And that makes Fred Dunham think the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program should be scrapped for a more fair system that follows a course Congress intended.

Sick nuclear workers and their advocates will hold a rally Wednesday to protest "unfair practices and illegal actions" in the current compensation program and call for legislative reform of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Here's a link to the proposed reforms. The Oak Ridge rally will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Jackson Plaza Office Complex, 800 Oak Ridge Turnpike. That's the site of the Department of Labor's Resource Center, which was set up to help sick workers with their claims.

For five years, former Rocky Flats worker E. Levi Samora Jr. was denied compensation meant for sick nuclear weapons workers, even though he had a diagnosis of a bomb-related illness from Rocky Flats doctors. Early in the compensation program, chronic beryllium disease was considered a rare, almost certain approval. Unlike invisible radiation, beryllium leaves its mark. Samora, 48, had the medical test that tied his lung damage directly to the unusual metal, which was used to make nuclear weapons in the sprawling plant northwest of Denver.

Denver, CO (PRWEB) April 29, 2008 -- There is new hope for thousands of nuclear weapons workers and uranium miners who got sick serving their country, thanks to the recent launch of a nonprofit organization created to help them cut through the red tape that prevents them from receiving government benefits. Cold War Patriots is the first national network connecting these workers and their families with the comprehensive information they need to process their claims. Organizers hope it will help them channel their anger and frustration into positive action.

Sammy Hayes could barely hold back tears when she spoke of her late husband, a former employee at Los Alamos National Laboratories. "When you watch somebody you love die, you want to take somebody out and wring their neck because you know in your heart they were exposed to stuff that causes three separate cancers," she said. Hayes appealed to the national Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health on Thursday at the Doubletree Hotel, in regards to her husband's death in 2005 of cancer-related complications. Claimants from Los Alamos National Laboratories appealed for work-related injury compensation from the federal government, seeking reparations after allegedly being exposed to radioactive materials and other hazardous substances.

Former nuclear workers at a western Pennsylvania plant who are sick could receive $150,000 in compensation plus medical help under a government program. The Department of Labor announced Thursday that Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at Vitro Manufacturing in Canonsburg, Pa., during a set period in the 1940s and '50s are eligible. Under the program, former workers diagnosed with one of 22 specific cancers are presumed to have received it from working at the plant and will receive compensation. A worker's survivors are also sometimes eligible. Copyright 2008 The Associated

The government has paid out more than $1 billion in claims to 9,134 Tennesseans made ill from working in the nuclear weapons facilities at Oak Ridge during the Cold War. The Labor Department announced the latest tally on Tuesday, saying others may still be eligible who haven't filed claims. The Tennesseans worked at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant or the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since the program began in 2001, about one in five payouts have gone to Tennesseans. The program provides compensation and medical benefits to workers diagnosed with cancer or other illnesses caused by workplace exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica. Another $500 million has been paid to nearly 4,800 workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.