Invasive weeds raise nuclear concerns at Rocky Flats

Invasive weeds at a former nuclear trigger factory at Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge raise the specter of nuclear contaminants spreading to surface water, a report from the Interior Department states. But there isn’t enough money to eradicate the weeds, and even if there was, the contaminated ground may prove too dangerous for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore.

Colorado Dems ask Obama to help move nuke worker compensation bill

Colorado legislators headed by Sen. Mark Udall asked the federal government Friday to help former nuclear weapons workers made ill by exposure to radiation by cutting back the bureaucracy that has unfairly prevented many of them from receiving compensation and…

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.

Spurned Again by Bureaucrats, Flats’ Workers Look to Congress

The conversation took place earlier this week between Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt. The discussion may have finally established the cooperation necessary to give ex-employees of the defunct Rocky Flats nuclear…