Drilled or mined at the Nevada Test Site?
Underground testing meant somebody went underground. Big-hole drilling on Yucca Flat and Pahute Mesa, tunnel mining in Rainier Mesa, mucking, shaft work and re-entry drilling after a shot. This was among the dustiest and most exposed work at a covered Department of Energy facility.
Big holes, tunnels, and going back in afterwards.
REECo ran the drilling and mining organisation. Fenix & Scisson engineered much of it, and drilling contractors on DOL’s list — Boyles Brothers, Brinkerhoff, Loffland Brothers, Shaft Drillers, Frontier-Kemper, Halliburton and others — supplied rigs and crews.
Re-entry drilling after a test was routine work. So was tunnel mining in ground that had been used before.
The job title is not what decides it.
You did not have to work for the Department of Energy. Its contractors and subcontractors are covered the same way, and most of the people who worked at the Nevada Test Site were never federal employees. They worked for REECo, for EG&G, for Wackenhut, for a paving company or a bus line or a drilling outfit out of Las Vegas.
Department of Energy contractor and subcontractor employees are covered the same as federal employees, and the job title does not matter. Craft and construction, security, drivers, cooks, clerks, custodians and warehouse staff worked at a covered facility exactly as the scientists did.
The Department of Labor decides every claim. Alara assesses the patient, coordinates the physician documentation and the home-health authorization, and provides the authorized care. It does not file claims and nothing here is a determination of eligibility.
Compensation, and a medical benefit that does not expire.
An accepted claim can pay a lump sum and opens a medical benefit for the accepted condition. Families call that the White Card. It is what can pay for skilled nursing and home health aide care at home — when a doctor documents that the care is needed for the accepted condition and the Department of Labor authorizes it. There is no lifetime dollar cap on the medical benefit.
Four questions, and a nurse reads the answers.
Where the work was. Who the paycheck came from. Roughly when. What a doctor has said about your health since. That is enough for a nurse to say whether there is something here worth opening — and if there is not, to say that too.
Nothing here is a determination of eligibility, and nobody takes a percentage of anything. Claim help through the Department of Labor’s Resource Center is free.
What people ask first.
Is silica or dust exposure part of this?
Part E covers illnesses caused by exposure to a toxic substance at a covered facility, which is not limited to radiation. What is covered in a given case is decided by the Department of Labor on its record.
I worked re-entry after shots. Does that change anything?
It is part of the work history and worth stating clearly, but the claim is not built on you proving your own exposure. Say what you did and when, and let the record be assembled.
I was a driller on contract, not a REECo employee.
Contractor and subcontractor employees are covered the same as everyone else at the facility. Many of the drilling companies are on DOL’s published list for the site.
A nurse reads it, not a form.
A case review takes a few minutes and needs no records, no claim number and no appointment. Nothing here is a determination of eligibility.
Every company on the DOL list → Nevada Test Site White Card guide → Check a work history →