WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President Clinton on Thursday signed an order authorizing payments to thousands of U.S. nuclear workers who got sick after being exposed to radiation as the United States built up its atomic arsenal during the Cold War era.
The order helps implement a law passed by Congress in October to compensate workers exposed to radiation in the building and testing of nuclear weapons.
"These individuals, many of whom were neither protected from nor informed of the hazards to which they were exposed, developed occupational illnesses as a result of their exposure to radiation and other hazards unique to nuclear weapons production and testing," the president said in a statement.