Labor Department to start compensating sick weapons workers

[struggle4progress]

Tens of thousands of former nuclear weapons workers exposed to radiation and other industrial toxins at government facilities can soon start filing for compensation.

The Labor Department's compensation program is one of two designed to pay workers who got sick while helping to build Cold War era bombs or clean up the waste left behind. Workers at Oak Ridge facilities are covered.

Earlier this year, the Labor Department began giving lump-sum checks to survivors of workers who died from job-related illnesses. However, living workers had to wait for officials to develop a payout formula that accounts for permanent impairments and lost wages. <snip>

http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=26011

[intheflow]

1. This could get costly.

If the news got out beyond this local NBC affiliate.