Drivers and transport · Nevada Test Site · EEOICPA

Drove for the Nevada Test Site?

Thousands of people got to work on a bus. The Nevada Test Site ran one of the largest employee bus operations in the country, and behind it a motor pool, a heavy-haul fleet and a constant stream of trucks. Driving to and around a covered Department of Energy facility is work at that facility.

The work

The bus fleet, the motor pool and the heavy haul.

REECo ran the bus fleet that carried the workforce out of Las Vegas to Mercury and back every working day, along with the motor pool and much of the site trucking. Las Vegas-Tonopah-Reno Stage Lines, Silverado Stages, CAST, Tri-State, Hittman and others on DOL’s list moved people, equipment and material.

Drivers went everywhere on the site, including into the areas, and were on it for as many hours as anyone.

The trade
bus driver, truck driver, heavy haul, dispatcher, motor pool, teamster, equipment operator.
Who employed it
Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company, Las Vegas-Tonopah-Reno Stage Lines, CAST Specialty Transportation, Inc., Silverado Stages, Ryan’s Express Transportation, and others.
Covered facility
The Nevada Test Site, now the Nevada National Security Site, is a covered Department of Energy facility for work from 1951 on. So is the Tonopah Test Range.
What still has to connect
A covered illness linked to that work. The Department of Labor decides every claim.
The part people get wrong

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.

What it may be worth

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.

Part B
A lump sum of $150,000 and lifetime medical coverage for the accepted condition.
Part E
Compensation for whole-body impairment and for wage loss caused by the covered illness, up to a combined maximum of $250,000. Federal Department of Energy employees are not covered under Part E.
The White Card
The medical benefit that comes with an accepted claim. It pays providers directly for care tied to the accepted condition, at no cost to you.
Care at home
Skilled nursing and home health aide services when they are medically appropriate and authorized. There is no lifetime dollar cap on the medical benefit.
What happens next

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.

Check a work history → The full list of companies →

Common questions

What people ask first.

I only drove the bus. I was never in the areas for work.

Bus and motor-pool work at the site is work at the covered facility. The program does not ask you to establish which parts of the site you entered.

I hauled for a company that only had the contract a couple of years.

Short contracts are normal and the days still count. The company may still be on DOL’s list; if it is not, the record can still be looked up.

I drove for the site and also for the Tonopah Test Range.

The Tonopah Test Range is a covered facility as well. Days at both can be part of the same employment history.

Start here

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 →