[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 164 (Thursday, November 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S14774]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           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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