Ailing Nuclear Lab Workers Pursue Aid

Many were onetime nuclear workers at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory now struggling with cancer or lung disease.

Some were widows who recalled their ill husbands’ final days, or workers who may have been exposed to radiation and chemicals.

Nearly 200 people packed a conference room in Simi Valley on Tuesday to learn if they are eligible for a federal program to compensate Department of Defense workers and their families for their cancer and lung diseases developed during the Cold War.

About 6,000 Rocketdyne employees who worked at the Santa Susana lab from the 1950s to the 1980s are believed to be eligible for consideration. About 654,000 workers could be eligible nationally, including thousands from 20 labs throughout California.

“We would like to express our appreciation to the workers,” Department of Energy liaison Jeff Eagan told the crowd at the Posada Royal Hotel and Suites. “They may have worn overalls instead of uniforms, but, yes, they really are veterans of the Cold War.”

The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which took effect this summer, promises cash settlements of up to $150,000 per person and ongoing medical testing and coverage if the government decides a claim is legitimate.

It is that process of satisfying officials that specific health problems were caused by their work that concerns many potential applicants. There are medical exams to take, paperwork to fill out and a review panel to consider. Records provided by the employer may weaken their cases, if those records do not classify them as having had enough exposure. Some distrust the government; others worry that a cause and effect will be difficult to demonstrate.

Betty Radcliff of Reseda said her husband, a nuclear technician, died in 1979, two weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer. She worried about her prospects of obtaining complete medical records after two decades, or whether those records would even satisfy the government. But she is convinced his job caused his death.

“No one in his whole family ever had cancer, and he was only 55,” she said. “He’d come home and say, ‘I got into the hot stuff again.’ I didn’t know much about it at the time, but he was dealing with radiation.”

Bobby Lee Anderson of Simi Valley said he worked for several years at Rocketdyne with beryllium, an element that can cause lung disease, but that his assignment was through the space program, not a Department of Defense contract.

Officials encouraged everybody who believes he or she has a claim to apply, regardless of how solid their cases may be. “This is a nonadversarial process,” Eagan said. Assistance with application forms will be available from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. today and Thursday at the hotel, 1775 Madera Road, or by calling the Labor Department at (866) 888-3322.

Eagan said workers also should share as much information as they have about any secret or questionable testing methods used in the past, as that might legitimize some workers’ claims.

An official with the Department of Labor, which is administering the program, told the audience that $10 million already has been paid in claims. But most of those recipients are uranium miners in Colorado and certain special-risk employees flagged by the government, not the broader range of workers who filled the conference room in Simi Valley.

Also, officials could not say precisely how many claims had been rejected this early in the process.