If nuclear is so safe why is the government paying out all this money to former workers at the plants?According to the article, linked above, from the February 20th Tampa Bay News:
"The Department of Labor has paid out more than $1.5 billion under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Program to nuclear workers in various parts of the United States. Since 2001 more than 75,000 claims by workers or their survivors have been filed under the program. About 51,000 claims have been approved for lump sum awards with another $104 million to cover medical care." Further, the article states:
"To get compensation, Ann Gleason of the Florida Nuclear Workers said, a person must have suffered a 50 percent exposure to contaminants. One woman who worked at the plant between 1979 and 1993 suffers from an eye cancer. She was rejected for benefits because her exposure rate was determined to be only 45 percent. Then doctors determined she had breast cancer."
3 comments:
Again you are mixing Nuclear Weapons Plant issues with Nuclear Power Plant issues. The people in the quoted article worked at a weapons plant.
From:
Former Workers Say Pinellas Nuclear Plant's Radiation, Chemicals Connected To Cancer
Throughout the Cold War, a plant in Pinellas County secretly produced electronic and mechanical equipment for nuclear weapons – including triggers. Built in 1957, the work at the Department of Energy Pinellas Plant in Largo was highly classified. By 2001, the government determined that many of the nuclear weapons workers at 292 plants across the country were developing illnesses related to their workplace. Employees were exposed to doses of radiation and toxic, carcinogenic chemicals, according to the Department of Energy. Many of those workers had no idea until they were contacted by the department. Congress passed a law in 2001 called the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act to provide workers with medical benefits and a one-time payout of $150,000 if they proved their illness was related to their work.
The Pinellas Plant employed about 2,200 people.
Also see the U.S. Department of Labor Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation - Home Page:
Benefits for Nuclear Weapons Workers
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP) began on July 31, 2001 with the Department of Labor’s implementation of Part B; Part E implementation began on October 28, 2004. The mission of the program is to provide lump-sum compensation and health benefits to eligible Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers (including employees, former employees, contractors and subcontractors) and lump-sum compensation to certain survivors if the worker is deceased.
Again anti NUC power plant hype and scare tactics. No one is proposing a Nuc weapons plant for Turkey Point.
I changed ONE word in my post...so it works with your comments. I took out "POWER". Nuclear whatever, we don't understand it yet. We don't know what to do with waste. We can't deal with it on any level with a margin of safety that makes me comfortable.
Ok, now with todays power outage and the hype about Turkey Point I'm sure the blog will add some nuc power plant scare stuff. Just wanted to be the first.
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