[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7240-7241]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 JUSTICE FOR NEVADA'S COLD WAR VETERANS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge an important 
achievement for Nevada's Cold War veterans and their families. These 
individuals

[[Page 7241]]

served their country at the Nevada Test Site, where over one thousand 
nuclear weapons detonations took place over four decades of nuclear 
testing. The work at the Nevada Test Site, NTS, helped America win the 
Cold War, but it also left thousands of workers with debilitating 
cancers. Beginning today, many of these workers will now be eligible 
for automatic compensation, putting an end to years of bureaucratic 
nightmares and redtape.
  On February 19, 1952, the Nevada Test Site was created to serve as 
the Nation's nuclear test site. 174 atmospheric and underground tests 
were performed there before the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 banned 
all atmospheric, space, and sub-sea nuclear weapons testing. Another 
754 tests were completed before the United States established a 
moratorium on nuclear weapons testing in 1992. The vast majority of 
testing in this period took place underground, in a network of tunnels 
and shafts, although some nonweapons nuclear testing continued to take 
place above ground. Even though these tunnels were designed to contain 
the radiation produced by the tests, most of the underground 
detonations did release radiation that reached NTS workers.
  In 2000, after a number of my colleagues and I had begun to hear 
disturbing stories from our constituents about illnesses they had 
gotten from their nuclear weapons work and their inability to get any 
financial compensation from the government, we introduced and passed 
the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act. This 
legislation was designed to allow thousands of America's Cold War 
veterans who had worked for the Department of Energy to receive 
compensation that would not only help pay their medical bills but would 
also honor the sacrifices they and their families had made for their 
country.
  Unfortunately, it soon became clear that even with this new law, it 
would not be easy for many workers to get the compensation they 
deserved. In 2005, I began to hear from workers and survivors 
complaining that they were being put through a seemingly endless stream 
of bureaucratic redtape only to be denied in the end. I heard stories 
about workers who were encouraged to remove their radiation detection 
devices so that they could continue to work even after reaching the 
maximum allowable radiation levels, yet their records showed zero 
radiation exposures year after year. I was enraged that these workers 
were denied compensation simply because their employer failed to keep 
an accurate account of how much radiation each worker was exposed to, 
so I embarked upon a three-pronged strategy to add NTS workers to the 
Special Exposure Cohort, SEC, making them eligible for automatic 
compensation. I immediately wrote a letter to President Bush asking for 
his administration to rectify this horrible wrong, and for some NTS 
workers, the situation was set right the next year.
  In 2006, employees who had worked at NTS for at least 250 days from 
1951 to 1962, or the atmospheric testing years, saw a tremendous 
victory. They were designated as part of a new Special Exposure Cohort, 
SEC. However, the sacrifices of NTS workers from the years of 
underground testing and their families went largely unacknowledged, 
until now. Thanks to the new SEC which goes into effect today, some 
measure of justice will be brought to these employees of NTS and their 
families.
  Unfortunately, this new SEC will not put an end to the years of 
waiting for all NTS workers. Some won't be eligible for automatic 
compensation because their cancer isn't on the official list or because 
they worked less than 250 days, even if they were present for a large 
release of radiation. I will continue to fight to make sure each and 
every one of Nevada's Cold War veterans and their families get the 
compensation and justice they deserve for the enormous personal 
sacrifices they have made for their country. Still, I am very happy 
that today an estimated 1,365 claimants may be eligible for automatic 
compensation under the new SEC.
  After submitting legislation to add the underground testing years to 
the SEC in 2006, my office began the long and complicated process of 
working with workers, survivors, and experts to submit an SEC petition. 
After much hard work, on February 5, 2007, I joined with three Nevadans 
in submitting an SEC petition arguing the scientific problems with the 
radiation dose reconstruction process that was denying so many NTS 
workers and their families the compensation and recognition they 
deserve. When the National Institute for Occupational Safety and 
Health, NIOSH, initially recommended that the petition be denied, it 
was the tireless work of more than a dozen individuals standing up for 
what is right that prevented the petition from being rejected 
completely. It was as a team that we persevered to gain approval for 
the petition and, with this approval, justice for the underground 
testing workers and their families.
  Today's victory would not have happened without the dedicated team of 
NTS workers, their families, and others who fought for years to make 
this day possible. I would like to take a moment to thank some of these 
people.
  First, I personally extend a heartfelt thank you to the three 
petitioners who devoted their time, energy, and testimony to bring this 
issue to the forefront. Thank you Lori Hunton, Paul Stednick, and Peter 
White. Lori's father, Oral Triplett worked at the Nevada Test Site and 
passed away when she was only 16. Paul worked at the site from 1966 to 
1994 as a laborer and labor foreman. Peter worked as a laborer, 
pipefitter, and welder from 1985 to 1989. Each of these individuals 
provided invaluable insight and support necessary to complete the 
petition process.
  I also thank Navor Valdez, Gene Campbell, Mary Bess Holloway 
Peterson, William Cleghorn, Robert Lemons, Cooper Michael Boyd, 
Patricia Niemeier, and John Funk, for sharing their stories about what 
really happened on the ground in Nevada.
  No thank you would be complete without acknowledging Richard Miller, 
formerly of the Government Accountability Project, without whom this 
petition would never have been filed.
  Finally, I send my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have worked 
at the Nevada Test Site and their families. I especially would like to 
acknowledge workers who passed away while fighting for benefits and 
their widows, widowers, and children surviving them who took up the 
fight for their loved one. Nevada's Cold War heroes have made 
immeasurable contributions to our nation's security, and the sacrifices 
they have made their health and their lives make it impossible for us 
to ever adequately thank them.

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