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Resource center opens for sick nuclear workers:
Critics say compensation program in Livermore slowly distributes funds to those once exposed to radiation
by Matt Carter, September 07, 2004

Three decades ago, Alex Yawornisky helped scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory carry out the most powerful underground nuclear test ever conducted on U.S. soil.

The retired construction manager assisted in placing a warhead with the explosive power of nearly 5 million tons of TNT at the bottom of a 6,000-foot- deep mine shaft on Amchitka Island , Alaska .

Code-named Cannikin, the warhead generated shock waves that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale and created a milewide crater after it was detonated at 11 a.m. on Nov. 6, 1971.

Four years ago, Yawornisky learned he had lymphoma. Cancer has attacked his spine. The 73-year-old needs a walker or wheelchair to move about, and he cannot dress himself normally or hop in the shower each morning.

But Lawrence Livermore Lab officials touted the Livermore resident as proof that a system designed to help nuclear workers with cancer and lung diseases is working.

Federal officials last week celebrated the opening of a new resource center for sick workers. The California Resource Center , the 11th of its kind in the country, is designed to help current and former employees of the Department of Energy and its contractors claim benefits authorized by Congress.

Yawornisky was able to collect a $150,000 payment that several thousand sick workers or their survivors are eligible to receive through the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The program is expected to pay out $1.4 billion to sick workers and their families in the next 10 years.

After filing a claim in August 2001, Yawornisky was approved just six months later. The money, he said, has allowed him to make improvements to his house that make it easier for him to live.

"I feel the program is great -- it's providing the compensation due to those who became handicapped or died from illnesses on the job," he said.

But Yawornisky's case is not typical, say some critics of the sick worker compensation program. Critics include survivors of employees whose claims remain in limbo -- and Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, who spoke at last week's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In her speech, Tauscher praised the employees who will staff the California Resource Center , including director Kris Neely. But she lamented the "long and tough" fight it took with federal bureaucrats to establish the center, which will serve the entire state.

Considering the number of nuclear weapons facilities and workers in the state, she said, California should have been the first resource center, not the 11th.

Tauscher also renewed her calls to transfer oversight of the sick worker compensation program from the Department of Energy to the Department of Labor.

She said the Department of Energy isn't able to efficiently process the thousands of claims filed by workers and their families.

A local lab watchdog group, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, introduced several people with pending claims.

They included Joyce Brooks, who said her husband, Carl, died of lung disease in January 2000.

Yawornisky said one reason his claim was processed so quickly is that the government was able to document his exposure to radiation during the test on Amchitka Island .

Brooks said she believes her husband, who worked for the Department of Energy for 32 years, became ill after being exposed to beryllium at Lawrence Livermore Lab. But because he was never given a blood test for beryllium disease, his widow's claim was denied. Brooks said because of Tauscher's interest in the case, her claim is again under review.

"I don't know whose desk it's sitting on, or what pile it's in," Brooks said.

The California Resource Center in Livermore also will help sick workers file for state workers' compensation benefits.

Camille Yuan- Soo Hoo , the Department of Energy's Livermore site office manager, said more than 700 workers in California have filed claims for state benefits. The Department of Energy has hired 70 additional physicians to assist in panel reviews of those claims.

While the physicians panels previously handled only 10 to 20 cases a week, decisions were made in 200 cases last week alone, Yuan- Soo Hoo said.

She said the Department of Energy intends to continue publicizing the program, and that traveling resource centers have generated "hundreds of claims throughout California ."

A Department of Labor official, Sharon Tyler, said the program has generated 57,000 claims nationwide.

Originally published by the Argus Online.

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