Paducah Sun
Staff report
Wednesday, December 15, 2004


An Ashland woman whose late husband worked at the
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant will receive $125,000
on Thursday.


The widow of a Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant
employee will receive the first compensation check
Thursday under the new law that disburses
toxic-exposure illness benefits through the U.S.
Department of Labor.

Lera Cloyes will be presented the $125,000 federal
check from U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning at 11 a.m. at the
Greenup County Senior Citizens Center in Ashland.

Cloyes late husband, James M. Cloyes, who was
employed as a maintenance mechanic at the Paducah
plant for 25 years, contracted and later died of
advanced pulmonary fibrosis.

The new law, which took effect Nov. 1, moved the
heavily backlogged claims program from the Department
of Energy to the Department of Labor, with the intent
of eliminating the backlog of more than 24,000
toxic-exposure illness claims nationwide, including
roughly 3,000 at Paducah.

The toxic-exposure program will pay as much as
$250,000 per worker. The money is apart from lump-sum
payments of $150,000 for Paducah nuclear workers with
specified radiation-induced cancers and chronic
beryllium disease.

Bunning had secured a provision in the Defense
Authorization Bill that transferred the toxin claims
program to the Department of Labor.