More Hanford cancer payouts urged

RICHLAND – The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has recommended that some Hanford workers exposed to radioactive americium or thorium in years past be automatically awarded $150,000 if they develop any of a wide range of cancers.

However, a recent report by the federal agency said that most of the tens of thousands of people who worked at Hanford from 1946 to 1990 who develop cancer should not receive automatic compensation.

The agency has recommended that only workers who were found to have been exposed to a certain level of radiation, or whose records are not complete enough to make that determination, be compensated.

The recommendation must be approved by an advisory panel, then would be forwarded to Congress and to the Department of Labor.

The report did not indicate how many of 2,614 workers who are seeking compensation might be eligible for payments.

Earlier this year, NIOSH recommended payments for some Hanford workers exposed to radiation from 1943 to August 1946, in the earliest days of the former nuclear weapons production site. The latest review covered Hanford workers from 1946 to 1990.

The review found there is not enough data to reconstruct accurate radiation doses of some workers exposed to americium at the Plutonium Finishing Plant and workers exposed to thorium in the 300 Area.

But it concluded that in most cases a radiation dose estimate could be made from looking at a variety of other records, and some of those workers could be compensated.

For decades, Hanford made plutonium for nuclear weapons and has a vast collection of nuclear waste.

Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, workers who develop cancer may receive compensation if NIOSH determines the amount of radiation they received on the job through 1990 had at least a 50 percent chance of causing their illness.

If too little information exists for the radiation dose to be reconstructed, groups of workers may be classified as “special exposure cohorts” and automatically compensated if they develop any of 22 cancers.

The NIOSH report covered workers at the Plutonium Finishing Plant from 1949 to 1968. Exposure also occurred in two related facilities, the 231-Z Isolation Building and 242-Z Waste Treatment Facility.

The americium was being recovered for NASA to use as a power source in early space flights.

Thorium was fabricated as part of a program to see whether it could be used rather than plutonium in nuclear weapons.