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Years after he died, Flats worker a problem for feds : Local News : The Rocky Mountain News

Years after he died, Flats worker a problem for fedsNeutron radiation exposure occurred, state records show

By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News13 Decd 08

Lane Christenson has been dead for more than a decade, but he is causing problems for the federal government.

The story of what’s happened to the family of this burly, former atomic bomb builder shows how federal officials have ignored evidence and their own rules to avoid compensating the nation’s sick nuclear weapons workers…………………………

Christenson was an engineer at the top secret Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site near Denver for nearly a quarter-century. The gruff Army veteran literally withered before his family’s eyes. He died in 1997 of thyroid cancer – a type strongly linked to radiation exposure. But when Christenson’s widow applied for the compensation, she was denied.

The government told her it has no records of Christenson being exposed to neutron radiation – a particularly dangerous kind that would have made his widow automatically eligible for $150,000.

But the state of Colorado has such records. Where did Colorado get them?

From the federal government……………………How then do the officials explain that the federal government claims it has no neutron records for Christenson but Colorado has copies of federal records showing years’ worth of neutron exposure for him?

Years after he died, Flats worker a problem for feds : Local News : The Rocky Mountain News

Tags: nuclear, antinnuclear, radioactive, uranium

December 15, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties