Workers who were employed at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Argonne National Laboratory-West in the 1950s through 1970s are going to get workers’ compensation benefits that some had previously sought and been denied, because of new special exposure cohort classes that were just approved by the INL and the Argonne National Laboratory- West. The Argonne National Laboratory-West merged with the INL in 2005 and now houses the materials and fuels complex.

The Special Exposure Cohort class of employees includes nuclear employees who worked for a specific amount of time at a specific plant and who have a specific type of cancer. If employees have been diagnosed with one of the 22 cancers specified in the class they can qualify for a presumption of causation, which will help them gain compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). The special exposure cohort takes the burden of proof off of employees, they must have one of the types of cancers named but they do not need to have proof that their workplace exposure to radiation caused their illness and they do not need a NIOSH radiation dose reconstruction. This was established because many nuclear workers were exposed to radiation, especially in the early years of working with radioactive substances, but most of the evidence of their exposure has been lost and they are still suffering the consequences.

Workers who were employed at least 250 days with the Argonne site and worked between April 10, 1951 and December 31, 1957 qualify for this cohort. Workers who were employed at least 250 days with the INL and were monitored for external radiation while working between March 1, 1970 and December 31, 1974 qualify.

Since its approval in 2000 the EEOICPA has paid $12.6 billion in benefits to employees who were sickened because of their work in the nuclear facilities, and to their dependents if they did not survive.