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DENVER (AP) - Two companies that worked as contractors with the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have been ordered to pay $925 million to residents who claimed that contamination blown from the facility endangered people's health and devalued their property. A federal judge on Monday ordered Dow Chemical Co. to pay $653 million and the former Rockwell International Corp. $508 million in compensatory damages, but capped the amount to be collected at $725 million.

Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her that none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer. Now, on the eighth anniversary of the federal program created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program's top doctor says that McCabe, now 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected.

Kathy Wolf explained the bureaucratic nightmare she and her late husband experienced trying to get him the medical attention he needed after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Charlie Wolf was given only six months to live after the diagnosis, which doctors said was related to his work at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site near Denver. But he fought, surviving six years before he died earlier this year. For the Wolfs, however, brain cancer would not be their only fight. Peace of mind from the government would end up being one of their toughest battles. Kathy said she and Charlie were forced to provide mounds of complicated information in order to be eligible to receive medical compensation from the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. "They just kept asking for more and more information," said Kathy Wolf during a conference call with reporters yesterday. "Charlie was struggling with brain cancer, he was unable to speak and read, it was just a very arduous and torturous path that they put you on."

Video: Former workers of the Rocky Flats Nuclear plant are dying at an alarming rate. This video is about this coverup and scandal.

Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer. Now, eight years after the federal program was created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program's top doctor says McCabe, 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected. The doctor, Eugene Schwartz, recently resigned and said many of the complaints workers, advocates and lawmakers have leveled at the controversial program are valid. For instance, Schwartz said he repeatedly warned the U.S. Department of Labor that it is ignoring established medical knowledge about the dangers of bomb work.

Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer. Now, eight years after the federal program was created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program's top doctor says McCabe, 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected. The doctor, Eugene Schwartz, recently resigned and said many of the complaints workers, advocates and lawmakers have leveled at the controversial program are valid. For instance, Schwartz said he repeatedly warned the U.S. Department of Labor that it is ignoring established medical knowledge about the dangers of bomb work.

The U.S. Department of Labor, if you can believe it, refused to talk to Rocky Mountain News reporter Laura Frank during the investigation that led to this week's series Deadly Denial - her description of grotesque red tape and foot-dragging inflicted upon those who once built nuclear arms for this country and who have been struck down since with terrible diseases.