Uranium-miners given compensation checks

Uranium-miners given compensation checks

October 11, 2001

MORRIS GEORGE waves to a crowd of approximately 150 as he receives a check for $50,000 in a ceremony in Shiprock Wednesday. He was one of six Navajo uranium-miners who received the checks as lump-sum payments for nuclear-weapons employees. Watching are Taylor McKenzie (far left), vice president of the Navajo Nation, and Judy Begay-Secody, executive director for the tribe’s Division of Health in Window Rock, Ariz.

The first of three $50,000 compensation checks were handed to six former Navajo Nation uranium-miners on Wednesday.

At a ceremony held at the Navajo Chapter House in Shiprock, Joe Nez, Harold Begay, Morris George, James George, and Tommy Badonie all received their first compensation checks for helping the United States win the Cold War.

Several members of the Navajo Nation participated in the ceremony including: Taylor McKenzie, vice-president of the Navajo Nation; Judy Secody, executive director of the Navajo Division of Health; and Larry Martinez, program director for the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers.

Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, uranium miners who suffered medical illness from mining uranium are eligible for $150,000 in compensation and paid medical expenses.

Uranium was used to manufacture nuclear weapons and can cause serious illnesses, such as cancer, to those who handle it.

Rather than issuing checks this year to workers, the government handed out IOUs.

Earlier this month, however, the Senate passed an amendment to the FY 2002 Defense Bill that would make the RECA program an automatic yearly expenditure.

"Compensating uranium workers is so important that it should not be subject to the whims of Congress," said U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) in a press release.