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“COMPENSATING CERTAIN DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WORKERS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Senate section on pages S14774 on Nov. 18, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
COMPENSATING CERTAIN DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WORKERS
Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, yesterday, my colleague from New Mexico, Senator Bingaman, and I introduced legislation that is, frankly, long overdue.
For more than 2 years, I have been concerned that the Department of Energy was not taking seriously the complaints of a number of workers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee who are ill and who believe that their illnesses are linked to their employment at the DOE site in Oak Ridge. In November of 1997, two years ago, I wrote to the then-Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, to request that the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, come to Oak Ridge to try to determine whether a pattern of unexplained illnesses was present and, if so, if its cause could be determined. The CDC study, like others before it, looked at a narrow sample of individuals and did not produce conclusive results.
Since then, I have been working to get the Department of Energy to acknowledge that there is a problem, that certain of its current and former workers are ill, and that they should work with us to address the situation. This legislation--which we developed in conjunction with the Department--is an important step in that direction.
It says, for the first time, that if mistakes were made, and if harm was done to workers who helped this country win the Cold War, we need to act now to remedy those mistakes. It represents a recognition on the part of the government that if people have illnesses that are linked to their employment at a Department of Energy facility, they deserve compensation. That is progress, and I am proud to be a part of it.
Our bill has three parts. The first section, the Energy Employees' Beryllium Compensation Act, would provide compensation to current and former workers who have contracted chronic beryllium disease or beryllium sensitivity while performing duties uniquely related to the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons production program. There are approximately 90 Oak Ridge workers who have been diagnosed with either chronic beryllium disease or beryllium sensitivity to date, and a total of 2,200 Oak Ridge workers who were potentially exposed.
The second section, the Energy Employees' Pilot Project Act, would establish a special pilot program for a specific group of 55 Oak Ridge workers who are currently the subject of an investigation by a panel of physicians specializing in health conditions related to occupational exposure to radiation and hazardous materials. This section authorizes the Secretary of Energy to award $100,000 each to those Oak Ridge workers whose illnesses are determined to likely be linked to their employment at the Oak Ridge site.
Finally, our bill creates the Paducah Employees' Exposure Compensation Fund, which would compensate those current and former workers at the Paducah, KY gaseous diffusion plant who were exposed to plutonium and other radioactive materials without their knowledge, and who develop one of a specified list of conditions linked to radiation exposure. I want to note that there are workers at the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant in Oak Ridge who were exposed to the same contaminants as those in Paducah, and workers in Portsmouth, Ohio who were similarly affected as well. It is my hope that these two groups of workers would be added to this section of the legislation, upon the conclusion of the Department of Energy's investigation into what happened at these two sites, if the facts so warrant. Their absence at this time should in no way indicate that either the sponsors of this bill or the Department of Energy believe that they were not similarly affected. I strongly believe that workers at all of the DOE sites must be treated equally in this process, and I am committed to doing all I can to ensure that that is the case.
Let me just remind my colleagues who it is we are talking about. We are talking about workers who participated in the Manhattan Project, men and women who helped to ensure the superiority of America's nuclear arsenal, and who directly contributed to our nation's victory in the Cold War. We owe them a debt of gratitude. And if we put them in harm's way without their knowledge, it's time for us to make that right. This bill is a step in that direction. I look forward to its consideration by the Senate.
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