nuclear-news

Compensation for uranium workers afflicted by radiation

some of the workers who were exposed to radiation in those eight years would pay the price
decades later….

 the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program has paid $7.8 billion in medical bills and compensation to 151,095 individuals.

Radiation workers sought by program May be compensated if Cold War-era job involved uranium  Dan Stockman | The Journal Gazette,  March 11, 2012   FORT WAYNE – The work lasted only eight years, but the effects scarred a generation for decades.

In 1944, the Joslyn Manufacturing and Supply Co. in Fort Wayne began
work on a contract with the Manhattan Engineering District to turn
short, stubby chunks of uranium into long rods. Those rods would help
fuel atomic bombs, make America the world’s first superpower and begin
the Cold War, a nuclear standoff that lasted for the next
half-century.

The workers at Joslyn – certainly until Aug. 6, 1945, when the
top-secret Manhattan Project was revealed to the world in an atomic
flash – most likely had little idea what they were handling.

They melted the uranium billets in a furnace, then extruded the metal
into long rods. According to federal records, when the machining was
done, they cleaned up the uranium dust with a simple broom and
dustpan.

By 1952, Joslyn’s uranium work was done, but some of the workers who
were exposed to radiation in those eight years would pay the price
decades later….
The federal program pays the medical bills for workers sickened by
their exposure to radiation and also can give them compensation of up
to $250,000, depending on what benefits they qualify for.

Compensation is also available to survivors of workers who have died
from radiation-induced illnesses…..
The program has paid $59.2 million to 982 workers and survivors in
Indiana, though those workers could have worked at sites in other
states. Nationwide, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program has paid $7.8 billion in medical bills and
compensation to 151,095 individuals.

In the meantime, the site still contains the marks of the work done
there: Parts of the building used are still radioactive and awaiting
cleanup…. http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120311/LOCAL10/303119961/1002/LOCAL

March 12, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Uranium, USA