Because of a bureaucratic mix-up, the plant's nuclear history has been lost or ignored. That means workers who may have been exposed to nuclear material or radiation aren't having their health checked, said Peter Tyler, an aide to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. It means the plant may not have been thoroughly checked for radioactive contamination. He wrote to Harkin, saying he believed his cancer may have been caused by exposure to nuclear materials. He just wants to get the word out.
Information is probably the greatest thing that a person who's hurting can use.
Harkin wants information, too. He's written to the secretaries of energy and the Army, which oversees the plant, asking them to search for missing records on possible worker exposure. Harkin wants the Department of Energy to begin screening workers and monitoring their health, as it plans to do at other former weapons plants. Harkin is also asking the Energy Department to disseminate its records. But no one is sure where they are.