SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 2015 $2 VOLUME 151, No. 141WWW.IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM/

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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

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rov

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COMMENTARY

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

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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