Sick workers question exposure views

Health officials have been invited to meet with
workers in Paducah and let them point out problem
areas in the profile.
By Joe Walker
jwalker@paducahsun.com

270.575.8656

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Union leaders worry that compensation for sick nuclear
workers could be denied or compromised by gaps in a
new government profile of historic job exposure at the
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Done by the National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health, the profile relies heavily on exposure
data from the Department of Energy that was spotty
until recent years, according to the plant atomic
workers' union. DOE owns the plant.

"I don't want to be too critical of NIOSH without
giving them the opportunity to explain their
rationale," said Leon Owens, a worker health screening
representative for the union.

Owens said he will invite NIOSH officials to a meeting
in Paducah in late January or early February to go
over the profile and allow workers to point out
problem areas. Meanwhile, the union will scrutinize
the report with the help of Mark Griffon, health
physicist for the screening program, Owens said.

In October, Congress expanded legislation for the
Department of Labor to compensate sick nuclear workers
by relying more heavily on plant profiles. The law
provides for input from workers to fill exposure gaps,
he said.

The seven-part Paducah report deals with work areas
and various types and concentrations of radioactive
materials that NIOSH uses to reconstruct worker
exposures. The "dose" reconstructions help determine
if sick workers are entitled to government
compensation.

Although the plant enriches mildly radioactive uranium
hexafluoride (UF6) for use in nuclear fuel, workers
were exposed to much deadlier radiation during parts
of the Cold War. Traces of plutonium and neptunium
contaminated certain buildings in the plant as workers
recovered uranium from spent reactor fuel, the profile
says.

Owens said he questions the term "moderate" used in
the profile to describe workers' external radiation
exposure potential in a now-closed building where the
reactor fuel was fed into the plant. The profile says
the risk of internal exposure was high. Dust
containing plutonium and neptunium is particularly
deadly if breathed or ingested.

For decades, DOE never acknowledged the presence of
neptunium or plutonium. Until 1999 when Griffon
found an old DOE memo to the contrary the agency
also refused to admit using a highly toxic metal
called beryllium in the secret machining of nuclear
weapons parts. Griffon led a 2001 study whose report
shed light on beryllium and many other previously
undisclosed risks, Owens said.

The profile does not satisfactorily address beryllium,
even though chronic beryllium disease can be
debilitating to the lungs or even fatal, Owens said.
Out of 2,236 screenings, more than 100 current and
former Paducah plant workers have the disease or
exhibit beryllium exposure, he said.

Workers with beryllium disease or various types of
radiation-induced cancers are entitled to $150,000
lump-sum payments. The expanded law provides for up to
$250,000 for workers exposed to various other toxins.
Some of the sickest workers could get as much as
$400,000 under both programs.

Kate Kimpan, an expert hired by U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning
of Kentucky to help draft the improved legislation,
now is acting director of the DOE Office of Worker
Advocacy. She is overseeing the transfer of records
from the Energy Department, which formerly ran the
toxic-exposure compensation program, to the Labor
Department.

"We feel very good about that," Owens said.

In four years, the Labor Department has paid about
$170 million at Paducah for radiation-induced cancers
and chronic beryllium disease. But there are about
3,000 Paducah claims backlogged under the former DOE
program with nothing paid.

Owens said the Labor Department is expected to hold a
town hall meeting in Paducah early next year to
clarify the new program. The Labor Department has
until late May to establish regulations.

Claims may be filed at the Paducah Energy Employees
Compensation Resource Center, 125 Memorial Drive, next
to Milner & Orr Funeral Home off Blandville Road.
Phone: 534-0599 or toll-free 866-534-0599. E-mail:
paducah.center@eh.doe.gov