-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 24, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Cold War victims
Gov't admits radiation, nuke workers demand treatment and compensation
By Elijah Crane
For nearly three decades nuclear weapons workers across the U.S. have accused the government of exposing them to sickening and cancer-causing radiation. And for more than three decades, the government has lied, covered up and tried to discredit any connections made between these workers and increased rates of cancer and disease.
Now, after many deaths and much suffering, at least some of the truth is out. But the workers are still fighting for compensation and health care.
In February, the Department of Energy (DOE) finally admitted in a 77-page report that it had knowingly exposed workers to dangerous levels of chemicals and radiation that lead to increased risk of up to 22 categories of cancers. In some cases the workers were actually used for human experiments.
While this admission by the government constitutes a victory for hundreds of families of cancer victims from 14 weapons facilities, the fight continues for recognition of radiation illnesses like beryllium disease, an untreatable lung condition. That would bring the number of workers afflicted well into the thousands.
Some of those suffering from radiation illnesses are also suffering from cancer, but are choosing to stay out of class action lawsuits that focus on radiation-induced cancer because that would negate any chance for them to win compensation for the other illnesses at a later date.
Workers lose in federal court
Hopeful workers from the DOE's Mound plant, just south of Dayton, Ohio, were in federal court in early February. But U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice rejected a proposal that would have made the DOE provide medical care for thousands of nuclear weapons workers exposed to dangerous radiation without their knowledge.
More than 6,000 workers stood to win health coverage from this case. The DOE had agreed to pay almost a million dollars to 800 workers currently at the plant, in addition to the 12 who filed the case. The DOE had conceded to these terms, but the judge blocked the proposal, claiming that the settlement favored current workers and that the DOE had not secured the funding for the settlement from Congress.
How's that for a system of justice?
Even when the criminal profiteers confess and yield to workers' demands, the system still coddles them and excuses their offenses that leave thousands of workers dead and dying--all for the sake of profit.
Radioactive waste and
hidden experimentsIn January, word was leaked to a civilian senior safety official at U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC), a government-chartered private company at the Peducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, that over 1,600 tons of hazardous nuclear weapons parts were buried throughout the 3,000-acre facility in the 1970s and 1980s.
Included in the waste is believed to be plutonium, highly enriched uranium, tritium and other dangerous radioactive materials.
This gigantic plant has produced enriched uranium for nuclear bombs and power plants since 1952. The buried waste exposes workers past and present, along with area residents, to an increased risk of cancer and poisoning from radioactive particles in the air and throughout the plant.
Not so coincidentally, the same site has also been named this month for conducting human experiments from 1952 to 1990 using radioactive uranium. It is reported that some workers "volunteered" to breathe a radioactive gas. Other workers at Peducah were used to test respirators against radioactive dust, gas and smoke.
At least one senior staff member is known to have drunk a solution containing uranium.
Employees have described secret releases of uranium-contaminated smoke and gas into the air, and even into some buildings. But the USEC has issued a statement claiming that "based on information available we are aware of nothing that adversely impacts our employees."
Apparently they did not read the report put out by the DOE itself.
A 1961 report said that in the 1950s workers at the Feed Mill plant on the complex were exposed to the same amount of radiation in a single day as was considered safe for an entire year. Moreover, the standards used then allowed significantly higher exposure than levels considered acceptable today.
During the Cold War years, workers at Peducah were subjected to high levels of radiation and toxic chemicals, including plutonium mixed with uranium.
Another compensation package for the families has been suggested by the Clinton administration, supposedly in conjunction with a clean-up plan.
Three former workers are responsible for instigating the DOE's report on Peducah. They have filed a lawsuit against Lockheed Martin Corp. and Martin Marietta Corp.--former operators of the plant that have made enormous profits off war and nuclear weapons. The workers are charging the corporations with lying to the government about environmental pollution and worker exposure to radiation for the purpose of increasing their profits.
The DOE, of course, is more than happy to present reports that indicate the offenses perpetrated at the Department of Defense complex were committed "without government knowledge."
Yucca Mountain
These recent admissions are a day late and a dollar short.
Most of the nuclear weaponry facilities have been closed down or turned into "environmental technology sites." As recent war crimes tribunals held all over the world--from Greece to San Francisco to Ukraine--have shown, the U.S. government is well aware of the deadly effects of its wars and weaponry on the workers of the world. These people's tribunals have been organized by opponents of the U.S./NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
In a society that has destroyed the profit system, these hazards would be addressed and corrected. Greedy U.S. capitalists, however, find it cheaper to address the mess of radioactive waste and dying workers than to invest in safer methods for use and storage of these hazardous materials.
They are interested only in the profits of the day, without regard for the lasting effects on the workers and the residents around the weaponry plants--usually the poorer sections of the working class.
And, as per usual, the U.S. government is now hoping to throw out small compensation packages and brush the whole situation under the rug, or more accurately, under a mountain in Nevada.
The nuclear waste problem is enormous--a reflection of the tremendous priority the U.S. ruling class put on reversing the gains made by the working class revolution in the Soviet Union. The Cold War was the fundamental objective of U.S. foreign policy for decades, and the full weight of this burden on the workers of this country has yet to be fully understood.
At the same time that the DOE was admitting an increased risk of cancer in those exposed to radiation, the Senate was passing with overwhelming support a bill to build a permanent nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
This operation would bury over 40,000 metric tons of used fuel from at least 80 nuclear reactors under Yucca Mountain, just 90 miles outside of Las Vegas.
Critics say the mountain lies on a fault line where there is also ground water seepage. This could eventually mean radiation leakage into area residents' water and air supply. The DOE would also use this site to dump radioactive waste from the Defense Department.
Those who voted against the bill are counting on a presidential veto, but this issue is expected to linger long into the coming years.
Ultimately, the government would like to pass a few dollars around and hope that mollifies those affected by radioactive waste. But it is not that simple. The bill passed by the Senate is not a permanent solution to the problem. It means that the same nuclear radiation shown to have caused illnesses and cancers in factory workers will continue to poison new generations for the next 10,000 years.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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