| DOE adds funds for comp claims AIKEN - The federal Department of Energy has transferred $9.7 million of its budget toward speeding up compensation claims from workers at nuclear weapons facilities who fell ill because of radiation, beryllium or silica exposure, according to a statement issued Thursday. Federal legislation in 2000 led the DOE and the Department of Labor to set up claims offices at 10 sites across the country, including an office in North Augusta that services the Savannah River Site. The sites are backlogged with complaints that are difficult to research because documentation on ill workers can be scattered and difficult to track down. Claims also must be reviewed and verified by physician panels before they're paid. Half of the transferred funding will pay for 30 new field workers to help process claims, and half will go toward speeding existing research practices at DOE sites, said Dolline Hatchett, a DOE spokeswoman. Officials have yet to determine where the 30 field researchers would be deployed. The money is being transferred from the Energy Department's Environmental Management and Defense Nuclear Non-Proliferation offices into its office of Environment, Safety and Health, Ms. Hatchett said. Workers or their family members have filed 47,400 claims since the compensation sites opened, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The government has paid 9,059 of the claims a total of $667.4 million. It has also paid $19 million in medical bills. There have been 3,765 claims from the Savannah River Site. Of those, 80 have been approved for compensation but only 35 have been paid, totaling $4.08 million in compensation. Almost 900 have been denied. Jim Kirr, the site manager at the Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center in North Augusta, said his office accepts claims of cancer caused by radiation, diseases caused by exposure to beryllium and chronic silicosis caused by exposure to silica during mining operations. He said his office was bombarded with claims when it first opened, but the number of claims has lessened with time. "We are starting to see some people get paid," he said. Reach Josh Gelinas at (803)279-6895 or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.
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