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SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 2015 $2 VOLUME 151, No. 141WWW.IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM/
FACEBOOK.COM/IDAHOSTATESMANTWITTER.COM/IDAHOSTATESMAN
NEWS ALL DAY.YOUR WAY
Mountain Views TreyTon
Bell (5A), Bish-
op Kellys Jon
Baumgardner
(4A) and Em-
metts Mason
Farnsworth
(3A), top to
bottom, all
dominated
opponents
throughout the
season, and as
players of the
year they high-
light this sea-
sons All-Idaho
high school football teams.
See the teams from all five
classes. SPORTS, 2B-6B
ALL-IDAHO FOOTBALL
THESE GUYS AREFREAKY GOOD
Richard Cirelli dons a red
suit in his front yard and
touches hearts but he
says the intangible gifts he
receives make coming back
such a joy. EXPLORE, 1D
HEART OF TREASURE VALLEY
THE REWARDS OF BEING SANTA
For the first time, virtually
every nation on Earth has
committed to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
Now what? A look at the
key elements. NEWS, 14A
CLIMATE CONFERENCE
GLOBAL WARMINGDEAL FINALIZED
More than 100,000 Americans who worked in the nations nuclear industry contracted can-
cer and other diseases, and the nation has spent $12 billion on payouts and medical expenses
for 53,000 workers, according to an analysis of government data by McClatchy newspapers. In
Idaho, almost 400 workers died from exposure received while working at the Idaho National
Laboratory, according to the federal government, and the government has compensated Idaho
workers in excess of $240 million. Despite those millions, many former employees feel the sys-
tem fails to recognize their diseases and the governments role. Statesman reporter Rocky Bark-
er worked with McClatchy newspaper colleagues for this first-of-its kind report. Above, workers
at INL handle radioactive material. DEPTH, 1C
At IdahoStatesman.com: See a multimedia version of this report and a worker database.
COMING MONDAY: Lack of records makes it hard to prove nuclear workers illnesses are
caused by their job.
IRRADIATED, PART 1 OF 4: SPECIAL REPORT ON NUCLEAR WORKER CONTAMINATION
Dont let them getaway with this
CHAD ESTES McClatchy
The overall winner in the State Depart-
ment of Educations annual event was
Ashlynn Baldus, a second-grader at Or-
chards Elementary in the Lewiston
School District, who depicted a cardinal
sitting on a branch in a snowstorm. Two
West Ada district students first-grader
Lacie Bolen of Mary McPherson Elementary School and kindergartener Brock Bo-
len of Silver Sage Elementary had their art chosen. See photos of the winning
submissions. EXPLORE, 1D
IDAHO STUDENTS
Holiday CardContest winners
Boise State University
engineering professor
Said Ahmed-Zaid writes
that Muslim countries and
moderate Muslims, al-
ready battling a war of
ideas with extremists in
their midst, must be en-
listed in our effort to win
against radical, violent
Islamists. EXPLORE, 5D
RELIGION
THE EXTREMISTSCANNOT WIN
IDAHO HISTORY
Taking a look at exploration in SouthernIdaho a long, long time ago NEWS, 6A
CANINE COMFORT
In North Idaho, a courthouse dog provesto be everyones best friend NEWS, 8A
Catching Up 2ALocal news 4AHistory 6ANation 10AWeather 17A
Sports 1BDepth 1COpinion 5CExplore 1DObituaries 12D
SPORTS
Hosting No. 24 Oregon, BoiseState builds a 17-point lead,makes key stops late to earnits biggest win of season 1B
EXPLORE
Boisean producestribute to harmonica-playing womenMICHAEL DEEDS, 1D
Cloudy, Rainy, Windy
46/30 See 17A
Fairview
Mit
ch
ell
Map
leG
rov
e
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was small. But it also showedthat several of the workers hadbeen previously contaminatedand had not been adequatelymonitored.
They were very sloppythen, said Delmore, now 78.
Delmore has worked at INLsince 1966 and is among thetop experts in the nation onmass spectrometry, an analyt-ical chemistry technique. Hesofficially retired but continues
IDAHO FALLS
Jim Delmore came to thelab he ran at the IdahoNational Laboratory onNov. 13, 1972, to find it
roped off from entry becauseof a plutonium contamination.
A chemist had brought asample of pluto-nium nitrateinto the MassSpectrometryLaboratory atthe IdahoChemical Pro-cessing Plantthe day beforethat was10,000 timeslarger than needed, Delmoresaid, and the plutonium nitratespread throughout the lab.Internal tests showed the doseto the lungs of the 13 lab staff
to work at the INL as a seniorfellow. He has sufferedthrough several bouts of fivedifferent cancers, he said, allnow in remission. Based onwhat he knew from the 1972incident, he made a claim in2013 under the Energy Em-ployees Occupational IllnessCompensation Program Act.
He received $150,000 incompensation. INL workerswhove shown their work likely
contributed to or caused theirillness got part of $53 millionin health care costs paid underthe program.
Another $188 million waspaid to the survivors of 471former INL workers whovedied thats about 37 percentof the families that filedclaims, according to Depart-ment of Labor records ob-tained and analyzed byMcClatchy.
The federal governmentacknowledged for the first timethis year that work at the Idahosite likely caused or contrib-uted to the deaths of 396 work-ers.
CHAD ESTES McClatchy
Workers for contractor CWI demolish the Experimental Breeder Reactor II boiler building at the Materials and Fuels Complex at IdahoNational Laboratory. The dome of the reactor, dedicated by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, had been one of the most recognizablefeatures of the 890-square-mile site.
INL CONTAMINATION
Feds acknowledgeradiation, chemicalslikely killed 396 in Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INL employees have gotten$240 million in compensationfor illness or death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Getting compensation hasbeen hard, technical andtime-consuming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One proposal would make iteasier for INL workers toqualify for money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BY ROCKY BARKER
rbarker@idahostatesman.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Read Irradiated
Link to the database and seethe full multimedia report atIdahoStatesman.com.
TODAY Winning the Cold Warand developing nuclear powerlikely caused or contributed tothe deaths of former INLworkers, the government says,and more than 15,000 nuclearworkers nationwide.
MONDAY Lack of recordsmakes it hard to prove nuclearworkers illnesses are caused bytheir job.
TUESDAY Federal governmentpares health care benefits andretirement for workers as itseeks to build a new generationof nuclear weapons.
WEDNESDAY Nuclear work issafer than in the Cold War era,but workers such as IdahoanRalph Stanton still face thethreat of illness.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
JimDelmore
MY DADS DYING WISH WAS DONT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS AND DONT EVER WORK OUT THERE.Steve Bailey, of Idaho Falls, whose father was denied compensation after working at INL and died of cancer
Photo provided by Steve Bailey
Ken Bailey, left, and Steve Bailey with a catch of steelhead inRiggins. Ken, who worked at the Idaho National Laboratory for 33 years, died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 but couldnt getcompensation from the federal government.
SEE INL, 3C
JACKSON, S.C.
Byron Vaigneur watched
as a brownish sludge con-
taining plutonium broke
through the wall of his of-
fice on Oct. 3, 1975, and
began puddling four feet
from his desk at the Savan-
nah River nuclear weapons
plant in South Carolina.
The radiation from the
plutonium likely started
attacking his body instant-
ly. Hed later develop
breast cancer and, as a re-
sult of his other work as a
health inspector at the
plant, hed also contract
chronic beryllium disease,
a debilitating respiratory
condition that can be fatal.
I knew we were in one
helluva damn mess, said
Vaigneur, now 84, who had
a mastectomy to cut out the
cancer from his left breast
and now is on oxygen.
IRRADIATED, PART 1 OF 4: A SPECIAL REPORT
Nationalcompensation
by the numbers
Sources: McClatchy Washington Bureau,
U.S. Department of Energy
107,374Number of sick workers seeking
compensation
48.9%Overall case approval rate
33,480Number of deceased workers or their survivors who received compensation
325Number of nuclear sites that produced
claimants
$9.42 billionTotal compensation paid
$2.55 billionTotal medical bills paid
186,000Number of workers exposed to
radiation since the EEOICPA was passed
Projected expenditures on nuclear weapons modernization over the next
30 years
$1 trillion
A story of patriotism,nukes and tragedy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The government has never fullydisclosed the human cost ofCold War nuclear program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fewer than half of workers whoapplied received money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
More than 186,000 workershave been exposed just since2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BY ROB HOTAKAINEN, LINDSAY
WISE, FRANK MATT AND
SAMANTHA EHLINGER
Statesman Washington Bureau
SEE IRRADIATED, 2C
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2C SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 2015Depth IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM
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Unable to walk morethan 100 feet on manydays, Vaigneur says hesready to die and has al-ready decided to donatehis body to science, hop-ing it will help otherswhove been exposed toradiation.
Vaigneur is one of107,394 Americans inwhom who have beendiagnosed with cancersand other diseases afterbuilding the nations nu-clear stockpile over thelast seven decades. Forhis troubles, he got$350,000 from the feder-al government in 2009.
His cash came from aspecial fund created in2001 to compensate thosesickened in the construc-tion of Americas nucleararsenal. The program wastouted as a way of repay-ing those who helped endthe fight with the Japa-nese and persevere in theCold War that followed.
Most Americans regardtheir work as a heroic,patriotic endeavor. Butthe government has neverfully disclosed the enor-mous human cost.
Now with the countryembarking on an ambi-tious plan to modernizeits nuclear weapons, cur-rent workers fear that thegovernment and its con-tractors have not learnedthe lessons of the past.
For the last year,McClatchy journalistsconducted more than 100interviews across thecountry and analyzedmore than 70 millionrecords in a federal data-base obtained under theFreedom of InformationAct.
Among the findings:A McClatchy can report
for the first time that thegreat push to win the ColdWar has left a legacy ofdeath on American soil:At least 33,480 formernuclear workers whoreceived compensationare dead. The death toll ismore than four times thenumber of Americancasualties in the wars inAfghanistan and Iraq.
A Federal officials great-ly underestimated howsick the U.S. nuclearworkforce would become.At first, the governmentpredicted the programwould serve only 3,000people at an annual costof $120 million. Fourteenyears later, taxpayershave spent sevenfold thatestimate, $12 billion, onpayouts and medical ex-penses for more than53,000 workers.
A Even with the balloon-
ing costs, fewer than halfof those whove appliedhave received any money.Workers complain thattheyre often left in bu-reaucratic limbo, flum-moxed by who gets pay-ments, frustrated by longwait times and over-whelmed by paperwork.
A Despite the cancersand other illnesses amongnuclear workers, the gov-ernment wants to savemoney by slashing currentemployees health plans,retirement benefits andsick leave.
A Stronger safety stan-dards have not stoppedaccidents or day-to-dayradiation exposure. Morethan 186,000 workershave been exposed since2001, all but ensuring anew generation of claim-ants. And to date, thegovernment has paid $11million to 118 workerswho began working atnuclear weapons facilitiesafter 2001.
The data that underpinthese findings, and whichis presented with thisspecial report, tookMcClatchys journalistsaround the country tocurrent and former weap-ons plants and the townsthat surround them.
Set in 10 states, thisinvestigation puts readersin living rooms of sickworkers in South Car-olina, on a picket line inTexas and at a cemeteryin Tennessee. The ac-counts of workers, ex-perts, activists and gov-ernment officials revealan unprecedented glimpseof the costs of war and therisks of a strong defense.
Here, then, are thelessons and warningsfrom our past.
A FUNERAL
IN TENNESSEE:
IT WAS WORTH IT
In 1944, when the fedswanted young women tohelp out with a top-secretproject in the hills of Ten-nessee, they found 19-year-old Evelyn Babb.
She grew up on fouracres in Appalachia,where her family had onemilk cow and a coupledozen chickens. Shejumped at the chance tomake 70 cents an hour atthe new Y-12 plant in OakRidge, Tenn., twistingknobs on dials, with noclue what she was doing.Bosses advised her to tellfriends that she was mak-ing highchairs for infants.
When President HarryTruman dropped anatomic bomb on Hiroshi-ma on Aug. 6, 1945, Babb
learned the truth: She hadhelped produce the atom-ic hell that killed thou-sands of Japanese as oneof the climactic acts ofWorld War II.
It made me feel good,Babb said in an interviewin September.
Years later, whenBabbs left leg ached allthe way to the bone, sheended up hospitalizedwith graphite poisoning.She got cancer on hernose, thinking it wascaused by the sun, but sheknew better when it brokeout on her thigh.
The U.S. governmentgave Babb $150,000 forher illnesses, and she splitpart of the money withher eight great-grand-children to help pay fortheir educations.
On Oct. 1, Babbs sonfound her dead in her OakRidge home.
Four days later, a longblack hearse pulled upalongside a patch of ma-ple and magnolia trees atOak Ridge MemorialPark, not far from a largemarble statue of Jesus inthe Garden of the Chris-tus.
Five men carried herbody to a muddied greencanopy for a service nextto the grave of her moth-er, with 50 or so pinkroses decorating the topof the casket.
Two weeks before shedied, Babb describedherself as an East Ten-nessee redneck and saidshe was always stubbornand would have neverbelieved that shed getsick from a job.
But she said shewouldve worked at theOak Ridge plant even ifshe had fully known ofthe dangers, saying it wasthe only way to stop theJapanese aggression.
It was worth it becausethey were killing all ourboys, Babb said.
IS IT THAT BIG? GOOD
Babb is one of the atleast 33,480 deceasedAmericans who qualifiedfor aid under the EnergyEmployees OccupationalIllness CompensationProgram Act, which com-pensates employees forillnesses linked to theirwork at 325 nuclear sites.
In many cases, themoney went to survivors.
Of the 33,480, the gov-ernment has specificallyacknowledged that expo-sure to radiation or othertoxins on the job likelycaused or contributed tothe deaths of 15,809workers. And this tallydoesnt count the tens ofthousands of exposedworkers who likely diedfrom radiation illness butwere not included in theprogram.
The death toll forAmerican workers hasnever been disclosed. TheU.S. Department of Labor,which administers theprogram, makes routinereports on how much itspends and how manypeople it serves, but neveron the number who havedied.
Bill Richardson, theformer governor of NewMexico who served asenergy secretary underPresident Bill Clinton,said sloppy record-keep-ing at the nuclear sitesmade it difficult to predictthe ultimate size of theprogram.
But Richardson said theprograms dramaticgrowth is a good sign,adding that no ones get-ting rich, with individualpayments capped at$400,000.
I was unaware of thesenumbers. ... Is it that big?Good, said Richardson.Its helping people.
But the programs sizehas triggered a hot de-bate, with critics sayingthe government has been
far too generous in dolingout benefits to employeeswhose cancer cannot beconclusively linked totheir work.
As a result, more than12 billion dollars thatsa B, billion dollars hasbeen distributed to peoplewho now believe that theyhave been injured by thework that they did, saidWanda Munn, a retiredsenior nuclear engineerwho worked at Hanford inWashington state and is alongtime member of thefederal Advisory Board onRadiation and WorkerHealth, a presidentialpanel that examines com-pensation claims.
Munn said the industryhas a good safety recordand theres no proof ofexcess cancer amongformer workers.
Congress passed theprogram in 2000 after theDepartment of Energysubmitted studies cov-ering 600,000 peoplethat showed workers at 14different sites had in-creased risks of dyingfrom various cancers andnonmalignant diseases.
THE SECRETS
OF OAK RIDGE:
LIPSTICK ON A PIG
After Evelyn Babbsfuneral was over, hersister, Jean Pope, grabbedtwo of the big pink rosesfrom atop the casket andmade her way down asmall hill to a waiting carparked by the hearse.
At 86, with peripheral
neuropathy that made ithard for her to walk, sheused a cane to preventherself from falling.
Workers had carefullyremoved 21 square patch-es of green sod to make abig hole for the casket atthe Oak Grove cemetery,where hundreds of freshlymowed grave sites weredressed with artificialflowers and foot-highAmerican flags.
Pope said that her sisterwanted to be buried here,next to their mother, notfar from her husband.
The sisters were alwaysclose. As the two oldest ina family with six kids,Pope said they felt theburden of responsibilitygrowing up in Scott Coun-ty, Tenn., with no car,plumbing or electricity.Both were eager to leavehome and earn money.
Pope said she spent herdays turning the dials onmachinery and pouringliquid ice into containers,never sure why she wasdoing it. Shes nearly deafand had a hysterectomy,blaming all her troubleson her Y-12 job.
But she said shes neverbeen able to convince thegovernment that she de-serves help.
I felt sad when theyturned me down for com-pensation, Pope said.
Years later, the twosisters learned that thoseknobs helped operatecalutrons, big pieces ofequipment designed forseparating the isotopes ofuranium and providingthe finished material forAmericas bombs.
Officially, they werecalled cubicle operators,but they would becomeknown as the CalutronGirls, a term popularizedyears later by Ray Smith,the Y-12 plants historian.
Babb got her $150,000in compensation in 2010after battling cancer foryears. While making muf-fins in her kitchen fouryears ago, she suffered astroke, which devastatedboth her memory and hereyesight.
At the American Mu-seum of Science and En-ergy in Oak Ridge, theresa photograph on displayshowing the calutron girlssitting on their stools,dressed sharply. The cap-tion makes no mention ofany of them getting sick.
Sitting next to heraunts casket after thefuneral, Pam Cannon,Popes daughter, said thephotograph served itspurpose.
The Calutron Girlsare the lipstick on a pig,she said. The govern-ment needed some nicepictures and the nicest jobwas the calutron girl, thegirl who looked nice, andshes sitting there on astool and she looks verysafe and sophisticated.But behind those panelswas the pig.
The Investigative Fund ofThe Nation Institute, anonprofit media centerbased in New York, helpedsupport this project.
FROM PAGE 1C
IRRADIATED
WADE PAYNE McClatchy
The casket of Evelyn Babb before being taken to the burial site at Oak Ridge Memorial Park on Oct. 5, 2015, in OakRidge, Tenn. Babb, who died at 90, worked as a calutron girl at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge in the 1940s. Shedeveloped cancer and was one of more than 33,000 deceased Americans who qualified for federal compensation.
Most denials for benefits:A fireman at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory died after being denied 8 times
Longest wait for first decisionafter filing for benefits:A claim filed by a senior technician at Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant took 13 years to be approved three years after the worker died
Sources: McClatchy Washington Bureau,
U.S. Department of Energy
Robert Dorrell
GraphFix Lab
Sites stilloperating
Inactive sites(being closed down)
Nuclear weaponsworkers deaths
14,5904,979
Workerswho died after
filing for benefits:
Among those: workers whodied before their first decision
A review of the U.S. nuclear weapons programs history shows that 15,809 workers deaths had links to occupational illnesses.
Total deceased workers:56,572
Deaths with proven linksto occupational illness:15,809
Deadliest plant: Y-12,Oak Ridge Tenn.:3,632 compensated deaths
Deceased workers or theirsurvivors who receivedcompensation:33,480
Paducah
Oak Ridge
LawrenceLivermore
WADE PAYNE McClatchy
Julie Strickland, center, Evelyn Babbs sister, grieves with Evelyns niece, Pam Cannon,left, and great-granddaughter Taylor Babb after Evelyns burial.
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