Radiation Tests Study Said to Cost $22 Million : Research: It had led to recommendation that the victims of the experiments be compensated. Lawyer for plaintiffs says the sum could have settled all claims.

The Department of Energy spent more than $22 million researching Cold War human radiation experiments in the past two years, a newspaper reported Monday.

The figure includes $6.2 million spent by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, which recommended that victims of the experiments be financially compensated in cases in which the government or researchers deliberately misled them, or when there was no medical benefit and they were physically harmed, according to the article in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“My only reaction to that is, ‘Wow,’ ” said Robert Newman, attorney for the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit involving radiation experiments at the University of Cincinnati. “That amount of money could certainly have settled all the claims.”

“That is going to become a real measuring stick for the victims and their families,” said Cooper Brown, spokesman for the Task Force on Radiation and Human Rights, a coalition of victims groups nationwide.

Congress has yet to take up the compensation issue.

“I still think there is a chance,” said Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a frequent critic of the experiments at the University of Cincinnati. “But let’s be honest, this has been an extremely busy six months focused on balancing the budget.”

The 14 members of the advisory committee were paid $462 a day for their time, the newspaper said. The panel met about every three weeks, from April 1994 through July 1995, then spent two more months revising its report, which was issued in October.

Energy Department officials said the work was worth the price.

“We’re very proud of the effort,” said DOE spokeswoman Carmen MacDougall. “We think it was a reasonable price to pay to uncover the truth.”