Nuke worker's widow paid under new policy

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUCLEAR_WORKERS?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The widow of an Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant employee received $125,000 Monday, one of the first checks issued by the U.S. Labor Department since it took over a long-delayed compensation program for Cold War-era defense workers from the Energy Department.

"Thank you, thank you," said Christine Case, whose husband, Wayne Wallace Jr., died in 1977 of kidney disease and other illnesses caused by exposure to toxic materials including mercury at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant from 1953 to 1971.

Congress started the program four years ago to help workers who were exposed to radiation and toxic substances at nuclear weapons plants around the nation.

As of the end of July, just before the program was transferred to the Labor Department, the Energy Department had paid only 31 claims out of about 25,000 filed nationwide. The $700,000 in payments amounted to an average benefit of roughly $22,500. Janet Michel of the Coalition for a Healthy Environment said the advocacy group is "thrilled that DOE is no longer part of this process. You don't ask the betrayer to take care of the victims.