Friday, September 17, 1999
U.S. deal would aid workers at only 1 uranium processing plant
Strickland angry at administration
BY KATHERINE RIZZO
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy (DOE) said Thursday it will ask Congress for money to compensate Kentucky workers with radiation-related cancers. But workers at sister plants in Ohio and Tennessee would be out of luck, at least at first.
Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, whose district includes the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, said he was furious.
“It is not right. It is not fair,” he said. “It is a morally wrong decision.”
Years ago, an unknown number of Piketon employees were exposed to an unknown amount of plutonium on the job.
Mr. Strickland said his conversations with DOE officials he would not identify led him to conclude that the Clinton administration rejected a broader compensation program out of concern for costs. He said officials fear setting a precedent that would put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in payouts to many of the 500,000-plus people who worked in the nuclear production complex from the early 1940s through the 1980s.
“Regardless of what the reason was, it's unjustified,” the lawmaker said. “What this administration ought to be saying is, "We're going to investigate thoroughly and we're going to let the chips fall where they may.'”
3 processing plants
The plants at Piketon, Paducah, Ky., and Oak Ridge, Tenn., processed uranium for nuclear warheads. Some of the uranium handled at Paducah and Piketon was tainted with plutonium. Workers who later got cancer suspect exposure to plutonium may have been the cause.
The Energy Department also announced details of its plan to ask for extra cleanup money for all three plants.
The department said it would seek $7 billion for expanding a medical monitoring program, examining contamination control programs and doing some historical sleuthing to determine exactly how recycled uranium moved throughout the weapons complex.
It also will ask for an extra $10.7 million to speed up cleanups under way at Paducah and Piketon, and $4.1 million to speed up cleanups of inactive facilities at those two sites.
The DOE did not rule out the possibility of seeking compensation at some point for workers at Piketon and Oak Ridge. The department char acterized its compensation request as a test, or pilot program which “will help evaluate the need for similar programs at these other sites.”
Bob Schaeffer of the watchdog group Alliance for Nuclear Accountability called that a frustrating pattern.
“They're showing a fear of liability, and they're showing typical administration dealings with whatever wheel is squeaking today rather than dealing with things systematically,” he said. “The distinctions are artificial, political and budget-oriented rather than human.
“They're going to end up spending more money fighting multiple worker and community suits.”
The department did not say how much a compensation program would cost, because that would depend on how many workers qualified.
Details awaited
Mr. Schaeffer said he was eager to see which radiation-linked cancers would qualify workers for payments, presuming Congress OKs payments.
Mr. Schaeffer's group wants the government to presume that people suffering from radiation-induced illnesses got them from exposure to the weapons plants if they worked there or lived near enough to be affected by airborne emissions or ground-water contamination.
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