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“JUSTICE FOR NEVADA'S COLD WAR VETERANS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Senate section on pages S3157-S3158 on May 5, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
JUSTICE FOR NEVADA'S COLD WAR VETERANS
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge an important achievement for Nevada's Cold War veterans and their families. These individuals served their country at the Nevada Test Site, where over one thousand nuclear weapons detonations took place over four decades of nuclear testing. The work at the Nevada Test Site, NTS, helped America win the Cold War, but it also left thousands of workers with debilitating cancers. Beginning today, many of these workers will now be eligible for automatic compensation, putting an end to years of bureaucratic nightmares and redtape.
On February 19, 1952, the Nevada Test Site was created to serve as the Nation's nuclear test site. 174 atmospheric and underground tests were performed there before the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 banned all atmospheric, space, and sub-sea nuclear weapons testing. Another 754 tests were completed before the United States established a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing in 1992. The vast majority of testing in this period took place underground, in a network of tunnels and shafts, although some nonweapons nuclear testing continued to take place above ground. Even though these tunnels were designed to contain the radiation produced by the tests, most of the underground detonations did release radiation that reached NTS workers.
In 2000, after a number of my colleagues and I had begun to hear disturbing stories from our constituents about illnesses they had gotten from their nuclear weapons work and their inability to get any financial compensation from the government, we introduced and passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act. This legislation was designed to allow thousands of America's Cold War veterans who had worked for the Department of Energy to receive compensation that would not only help pay their medical bills but would also honor the sacrifices they and their families had made for their country.
Unfortunately, it soon became clear that even with this new law, it would not be easy for many workers to get the compensation they deserved. In 2005, I began to hear from workers and survivors complaining that they were being put through a seemingly endless stream of bureaucratic redtape only to be denied in the end. I heard stories about workers who were encouraged to remove their radiation detection devices so that they could continue to work even after reaching the maximum allowable radiation levels, yet their records showed zero radiation exposures year after year. I was enraged that these workers were denied compensation simply because their employer failed to keep an accurate account of how much radiation each worker was exposed to, so I embarked upon a three-pronged strategy to add NTS workers to the Special Exposure Cohort, SEC, making them eligible for automatic compensation. I immediately wrote a letter to President Bush asking for his administration to rectify this horrible wrong, and for some NTS workers, the situation was set right the next year.
In 2006, employees who had worked at NTS for at least 250 days from 1951 to 1962, or the atmospheric testing years, saw a tremendous victory. They were designated as part of a new Special Exposure Cohort, SEC. However, the sacrifices of NTS workers from the years of underground testing and their families went largely unacknowledged, until now. Thanks to the new SEC which goes into effect today, some measure of justice will be brought to these employees of NTS and their families.
Unfortunately, this new SEC will not put an end to the years of waiting for all NTS workers. Some won't be eligible for automatic compensation because their cancer isn't on the official list or because they worked less than 250 days, even if they were present for a large release of radiation. I will continue to fight to make sure each and every one of Nevada's Cold War veterans and their families get the compensation and justice they deserve for the enormous personal sacrifices they have made for their country. Still, I am very happy that today an estimated 1,365 claimants may be eligible for automatic compensation under the new SEC.
After submitting legislation to add the underground testing years to the SEC in 2006, my office began the long and complicated process of working with workers, survivors, and experts to submit an SEC petition. After much hard work, on February 5, 2007, I joined with three Nevadans in submitting an SEC petition arguing the scientific problems with the radiation dose reconstruction process that was denying so many NTS workers and their families the compensation and recognition they deserve. When the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH, initially recommended that the petition be denied, it was the tireless work of more than a dozen individuals standing up for what is right that prevented the petition from being rejected completely. It was as a team that we persevered to gain approval for the petition and, with this approval, justice for the underground testing workers and their families.
Today's victory would not have happened without the dedicated team of NTS workers, their families, and others who fought for years to make this day possible. I would like to take a moment to thank some of these people.
First, I personally extend a heartfelt thank you to the three petitioners who devoted their time, energy, and testimony to bring this issue to the forefront. Thank you Lori Hunton, Paul Stednick, and Peter White. Lori's father, Oral Triplett worked at the Nevada Test Site and passed away when she was only 16. Paul worked at the site from 1966 to 1994 as a laborer and labor foreman. Peter worked as a laborer, pipefitter, and welder from 1985 to 1989. Each of these individuals provided invaluable insight and support necessary to complete the petition process.
I also thank Navor Valdez, Gene Campbell, Mary Bess Holloway Peterson, William Cleghorn, Robert Lemons, Cooper Michael Boyd, Patricia Niemeier, and John Funk, for sharing their stories about what really happened on the ground in Nevada.
No thank you would be complete without acknowledging Richard Miller, formerly of the Government Accountability Project, without whom this petition would never have been filed.
Finally, I send my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have worked at the Nevada Test Site and their families. I especially would like to acknowledge workers who passed away while fighting for benefits and their widows, widowers, and children surviving them who took up the fight for their loved one. Nevada's Cold War heroes have made immeasurable contributions to our nation's security, and the sacrifices they have made their health and their lives make it impossible for us to ever adequately thank them.
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