If the dynamic female congressional duo, Barbara Boxer and Diana Feinstein, have their way, a program compensating workers who became ill after working at Department of Energy sites will be funded. Employees of the old Rocketdyne facility in the hills along the Los Angeles/Ventura county line have filed 677 claims through the program. The legislation would guarantee former workers or their survivors up to $250,000 in benefits. Workers denied program benefits could reapply under the proposed legislation. The Santa Susana Fair Compensation Act of 2007 would amend the 1999 Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program. In another development, the Department of Energy said it wouldn't resume cleanup at the site until completion of a long-awaited comprehensive environmental review. In May, the Department of Energy said it would abide by a judge's decision and the agency halted cleanup of radiation-contaminated areas for 45 days. The work could now be stalled two years while the environmental report is prepared.
U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti had found the department violated and was continuing to violate the National Environmental Policy Act because it has not prepared an environmental impact statement. The Department of Energy said it will study contamination on a 90-acre section of the lab called the Energy Technology and Engineering Center, where the department conducted nuclear research from the 1950s through 1998.
The center was the site of 10 nuclear reactors, one of which had a partial meltdown, and an open-air pit where workers burned radioactive and chemical waste. The site has radioactive and toxic contamination in the groundwater and soil, and the study will look at the different options and costs for removing the contamination.
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