For Immediate Release:
Contact: Chuck Kleeschulte or Cindi Bookout
October 31, 2000 O (202) 224-9306; H (301) 283-4149; O 224-8767
(Email: chuck_kleeschulte@murkowski.senate.gov)

MURKOWSKI: PRESIDENT SIGNS AMCHITKA NUCLEAR TEST WORKERS TO GAIN COMPENSATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESSES

WASHINGTON -- President Bill Clinton has signed the Defense Authorization Bill which includes a proposal by Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski to compensate workers involved with the Amchitka, Alaska weapons tests in the 1960s and 1970s who later fell ill with any one of a specified list of diseases.

The Amchitka provision, part of a broader nuclear weapons workers compensation package offered by Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and others, was added at Senator Murkowski’s request to the Senate-passed bill this summer.

"We have been able to make the case that Alaska workers who labored on the Amchitka tests must be compensated for the health effects of their labors. These workers were instrumental in winning the Cold War. Their efforts deterred hostile attack and safeguarded our security. It is only just they receive compensation if they become sick," said Murkowski, after the panel accepted Murkowski’s proposal.

About 2,000 workers, at least 300 of whom still live in Alaska, worked to tunnel the passageways needed for the tests or on related experiments on Amchitka Island. Three underground tests were conducted: "Long Shot" (80 kilotons) in 1965; "Milrow" (1 megaton) in 1969; and "Cannikin," the nation’ s largest underground test, (5 megatons) in 1971.

Independent investigators assert that workers were exposed to above normal background levels of radiation, ranging from 669 to 17,240 millirems per year. At the time the allowable radiation level for radiation workers was 5,000 millirems per year, or 1,250 millirems per quarter.

Some of the Amchitka workers have developed forms of cancer that could have been caused by radiation exposure, although medical follow up screenings have only just begun. This medical screening is being conducted as the result of a commitment to Murkowski from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last year.

Murkowski said it may be impossible to quantify the actual amount of radiation Amchitka workers received since the old Atomic Energy Commission did not properly collect and maintain radiation exposure records.

"Because the proper procedures were not followed and the proper records not kept, these workers through no fault of their own have been prevented from winning compensation claims. That is simply unfair and is the reason why we are including Amchitka workers as part of a special group that will be entitled to compensation if they succumb to a radiation-related illness," said Murkowski.

Other workers included in the special group are employees of the Department of Energy’s gaseous diffusion (uranium enrichment) plants located in Portsmouth, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Workers who developed most forms of post-exposure leukemia, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, or specified forms of cancer will be entitled to receive $150,000 in the case of disability or death, plus medical benefits for the occupational illness. The compensation would be available to workers associated with the Amchitka test program prior to January 1, 1974. The survivors of Amchitka workers who died prior to the passage of this legislation will also be eligible for compensation.

In addition, workers contracting silicosis (a disease resulting from exposure to silica while digging underground tunnels for nuclear test.