If you go
What: Cold War Patriots town halls for former Rocky Flats workers
When: 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday
Where: Longmont Elks Lodge, 306 Coffman St.
Cost: Free
More info: bit.ly/2sPDOvv
Correction: The orginal version of this story misstated the amount available per claim. That information has now been corrected.
Cold War Patriots, an advocacy group for nuclear weapon and uranium workers, is hosting two free town halls in Longmont on Thursday for former Rocky Flats workers and their survivors.
The U.S. Department of Labor has two programs for people who are experiencing or experienced health problems from their work around nuclear weapons or uranium — the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act and the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
The programs offer monetary compensation up to $400,000 per claim, as well as free health benefits for the covered condition to workers who participated in the nuclear weapons program from 1942 to present day and became sick because of radiation exposure.
The Rocky Flats plant in Jefferson County, about 12 miles southeast of Boulder, produced radioactive plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1989.
The plant was the site of numerous contaminating incidents, including a 1969 fire that was considered the most costly industrial accident in United States history at the time. In 1989, the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency raided the plant, and manufacturing stopped. Cleanup of the site began in 1992, and the land surrounding the site is now being turned into a wildlife refuge.
Tim Lerew, chairman for the Cold War Patriots advisory committee, said the meeting is open to a wide range of people from family of friends of former workers to the former workers themselves.
Lerew will present on ways the Cold War Patriots can help people apply for the two federal programs. Survivors of former workers who died from a work-related incident could be eligible for benefits, Lerew said.
“There’s a not a statute of limitations when a valid claim can be made, so if someone had a grandparent or parent who worked at Rocky Flats in the ’50s or ’60s, and if that person died from a work-related illness, their beneficiaries down to their grandchildren could file a valid claim,” Lerew said.
Lerew said that he hopes to help former workers navigate the federal claim application process.
“Rocky Flats was a linchpin in the nuclear weapons complex. It was vital, but unfortunately there was a lot of plutonium, solvents and other chemicals that have caused adverse health effects,” Lerew said.
Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci
