Des Moines Register
09-13-06
U.S. OKs compensation for nuclear workers
Dateline Iowa
REGISTER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
AMES — Federal officials have jumped the final hurdle in a plan to speed
government compensation to former nuclear weapons workers at the Ames
Laboratory, officials said.
Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
recently approved recommendations that people who worked at the lab for at
least 250 days between 1942 and 1954 and who have one of 22 types of cancer
be eligible to receive automatic compensation.
"After 30 or 31 days, it should become law," said Laurence Fuortes, a University
of Iowa professor of occupational health who coordinates health screenings for
the U.S. Labor Department.
Under legislation approved by Congress, people found to have been made ill by
their work with nuclear-weapon components are to receive $150,000 and medical
care.
About 1,000 people worked at the lab from 1942 to 1954, but it is unknown how
many may have cancer, Fuortes said.
The Ames Laboratory played a key role in the Manhattan Project, the top-secret
endeavor during World War II that led to the creation of the first atomic bomb.