US nuke plant workers not getting compensation: report

WASHINGTON: Thousands of American workers who became ill or sustained injuries while working in the country's nuclear weapons factories are being denied compensation as part of the Federal Government's decision to keep a close watch on the expenditure in this category.

"Of the 72,000 compensation applications filed by the workers so far, about 60 per cent have been rejected, while thousands are still waiting for a response. Only 21 per cent of the applicants have received their cheques so far," the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The report cites the example of Walter McKenzie whose assignment towards the end of the Cold War was to mop up after mishaps at a nuclear weapons factory. He cleaned leaks and spills inside the secret buildings in Georgia, until one day his body became so contaminated with radiation that alarms at the factory went off as he passed.

"They couldn't scrub the radiation off my skin -- even after four showers," McKenzie recalled of his most terrifying day at the Savannah River nuclear weapons plant near Aiken.

When doctors discovered the first of the 19 malignant tumours on his bladder, McKenzie filed a claim for federal compensation.

But it was denied because due to his inability to access secret government files, or even some of his own personnel records, McKenzie could not prove that he was exposed to something that may have made him sick.

The report further claimed that, Congressional investigators had found evidence according to which the Bush administration was unhappy with the programme's rising costs and were trying to block measures that would increase workers' chances of compensation.

But Labour Department officials who oversee the programme said it has been successful, pointing to the large sums distributed - about $2.6 billion in payments in five years, far more than some early estimates.

"In a compensation programme, you get benefits out to people who are eligible and you inevitably have to deal with the fact that some people are not eligible," Shelby Hallmark, director of Labour's Office of Workers' Compensation Programmes said.

"As for the assumption that the programme is somehow trying to block people from getting compensation, nothing could be further from the truth" he said.

Republican Congressman John Hostettler from Indiana who chaired a House subcommittee overseeing the programme had said at a hearing last December that Labour Department memos reflected a "culture of disdain" towards workers and raised
questions whether the department exceeded its authority by using "legalistic  interpretations" to limit eligible workers.