News Release

While Senate Holds DOE Hearing Today, Nuclear Victims Blast Narrow Scope

Share

WASHINGTON — While the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee holds a hearing today to focus on health and safety issues at two Department of Energy atomic plants, representatives of workers and others subjected to radiation exposure say that the Senate panel is dodging a wide array of serious problems at DOE nuclear facilities across the country. Reporters and producers are invited to directly contact the following people for interviews:

TRISHA PRITIKIN
The daughter of nuclear workers at the Hanford facility near Richland, Wash., Pritikin has serious thyroid ills. Both her parents died of cancer. “My brother died shortly after birth, in 1947, in the Hanford downwind area, part of a sudden and inexplicable number of neonatal deaths in the Hanford radiation exposure zone,” Pritikin said. “I am the only surviving member of my Hanford-exposed family.” She added today: “My situation is illustrative of why we must address the health concerns of workers, worker families, and off-site exposed. To be myopic and concentrate on only workers, or only workers at one or another site, or on only one or two health problems of workers, is to see only one small part of the big picture.”

GLENN BELL
Bell, a leader of the Beryllium Victims Alliance, is a longtime worker at DOE’s nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Although he would be included in DOE proposals for compensation to employees exposed to toxic materials, Bell says the proposals are woefully inadequate — excluding many thousands of Americans harmed by DOE facilities.
More Information

LORI GOODMAN
Goodman is among those spearheading efforts by Navajo uranium miners in the Southwest to receive compensation equal to coverage provided to non-native miners.

PAT BROUDY
Pat Broudy is the widow of Chuck Broudy, a U.S. Marine involved in atomic tests in the Pacific and in Nevada. Her husband — who died in 1978 of lymphoma — was among more than 250,000 members of the U.S. armed forces exposed to atomic bomb tests at close range. Pat Broudy has extensive experience with government denials of radiation-related claims.

JAY TRUMAN
Founder and director of the Downwinders organization, Truman was born in Southern Utah in 1951. As a child living downwind of the Nevada Test Site, he watched more than 30 atomic blasts. For the past 33 years, he has been engaged in research and advocacy for all persons exposed to radiation from nuclear activities.
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020