USA: nuova legge prevede milioni di dollari di risarcimenti (9 ottobre)

October 9, 2000
DEFENSE BILL INCLUDES MILLIONS FOR NUCLEAR WORKERS' COMPENSATION
http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2000/2000L-10-09-09.html

WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2000 (ENS) - Congress has approved a Defense Department appropriations bill that includes millions of dollars to compensate nuclear weapons workers, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Friday. The program would cover employees who were injured after exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica while working at weapons plants over the past 50 years. "Under the proposal in the defense authorization bill, nuclear weapons workers with radiation related cancers and lung disease will receive benefits to help pay their medical bills," said Richardson. "It's a national debt long owed our Cold War veterans, who've paid the highest price possible for their service to the nation." Eligible workers would receive a lump sum payment of $150,000, plus all future medical costs related to the illness. The program would receive $250 million in fiscal year 2001, and additional funds would be made available as needed without the need for Congressional approval.

The $309 billion Defense bill, which must still be signed by President Bill Clinton, also includes $40 million for projects on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, where the Navy maintains a bombing range and training facilities. The bill would transfer 4,000 acres on the western side of the island to the people of Vieques. The appropriations measure authorizes about $1.3 billion for environmental restoration activities, which is $45 million more than the White House requested for remediating former defense sites. An additional $50 million would be spent on the Hanford Tank Waste Remediation System project at the Hanford Reservation in Washington state. The controversial National Ignition Facility would get $136 million to continue construction on the project, which is already over budget.


Comments:

   Sounds like the thousands of HF or chemically injured gas diffusion workers don't get covered and are sent into state systems that already don't work. No compensation for the HF injured lungs, HF induced cancers, HF induced thyroid diseases, or all the CFS like illnesses that debilitate workers.


Commento: gli impianti di produzione di uranio emettono nell'aria tonnellate di fluoro. Il fluoro, un alogeno come il cloro, oltre che creare il buco nell'ozono abbassa le difese immunitarie. La cosa che ci stupisce è che questo fatto viene per lo più ignorato. E' come se di fronte al nucleare fosse eretto un muro, ormai nemmeno più di Berlino. E mentre negli USA si cominciano a risarcire i danni, qui il problema viene sistematicamente sottovalutato. Le centrali nucleari inquinano, nel medio periodo, circa 1.500 km tutt'intorno. E' per questo che l'Austria, unica voce, si leva per impedire l'apertura della nuova centrale di Temelin. Il guaio è che siamo un po' tutti veterani della guerra "fredda", anche se molti ancora non se ne rendono conto. E i soldi, le nuove perline per i selvaggi del 2000, non bastano certo a far asciugare le lacrime di chi sta perdendo familiari ed amici in questo olocausto causato dalla contaminazione. O sbaglio?