rssPosts by Laura Frank, Pro Publica
Fed Doctor: Sick nuclear workers unfairly denied compensation
Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her that none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer.
Now, on the eighth anniversary of the federal program created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program’s top doctor says that McCabe, now 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected.
New hope for Cold War-era bomb-makers
The nuclear bombs Charlie Wolf built helped win the Cold War. But his toughest battles came afterward, when he applied to a troubled federal compensation program intended for those whose top-secret work made them sick.
Wolf wound up battling a bureaucratic morass for more than six years — all while fighting brain cancer that was supposed to have killed him in six months — trying to prove he qualified for financial and medical aid.
