Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2016
On June 3rd, the US Department of Health & Human Services approved an expansion of the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) for Livermore National Lab workers. While all Livermore, California nuclear weapons design lab workers can apply for benefits and compensation from the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, they must go through a cumbersome “dose reconstruction” process to determine if their radiation exposures were 50%-or-more likely to have caused the worker’s claimed illness(es). Workers can avoid having to meet this requirement if they fit into a SEC, a class of workers for whom it is determined that the involved agencies cannot accurately “reconstruct” their radiation exposures, who also have one or more acknowledged radiogenic cancers (the government currently lists 22 such cancers). Livermore Lab’s SEC was extended to cover all employees who worked at least one year (250 working days) between 1952 and December 31, 1989; the previous cut-off was Dec. 31, 1973. If you or a loved one would like more information about the worker compensation program, contact Tri-Valley CAREs’ staff attorney Scott Yundtt, in Livermore, Calif. at (925) 433-7148.
—Citizen’s Watch, Tri-Valley CAREs, Summer 2016
Leave a Reply