By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Tuesday announced it has restored an advisory board that plays a key role in approving medical claims by nuclear weapons workers who have had high radiation exposure, after it was suspended by the Department of Health and Human Services in January.
Eligible workers at U.S. Department of Energy and Defense nuclear sites are entitled to a $150,000 lump-sum payment and medical insurance if they can demonstrate through petitions that the cancers they are diagnosed with can be linked to high exposure to radiation during their employment.
The restoration of the board was part of a White House executive order that enables nearly two dozen federal advisory committees, including the HHS Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, to continue work until at least September 30, 2027. The radiation and worker health board was set to expire on Tuesday.
Reuters reported earlier this year that the claims of thousands of sick workers who built and maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal had been left in limbo at the start of this year because HHS suspended the board, which is charged with reviewing their claims for compensation and medical coverage.
Tuesday’s order was a relief to nuclear workers who continue their fight for compensation.
“I have tears in my eyes thinking of everyone and how much help and hope it gives them,” said Debbie Jordan, who worked at the Hematite Westinghouse nuclear fuel site in Missouri from 1981 to 2001. She is a pancreatic cancer survivor who had a petition held up by the board suspension.
Several congressional staffers had been pressing the White House to restore the board, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Over 700,000 people have been employed in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex since the heyday of the Cold War – mining, transporting and processing radioactive materials for military and civilian nuclear programs at 380 sites across the country.
U.S. presidents have appointed medical specialists, scientists and former workers to a review board to provide unbiased analysis of the compensation petitions.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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