Cooked, cleaned or kept the Test Site running?
Mercury was a town, and towns need running. A cafeteria, dormitories, a laundry, warehouses, a motor pool, a machine shop, offices. The people who did that work were on the same covered Department of Energy facility, for the same hours, as the people running the tests.
The cafeteria, the laundry, the warehouse and the shops.
REECo carried most of the site support work, with subcontractors on DOL’s list supplying cleaning, linen, food and services — Givens Cleaning, American Linen Supply, Western Laundry, New York Meats and Provisions and others.
Mechanics, welders, pipefitters, machinists and maintenance crews worked across every area of the site. Clerks, timekeepers and stock staff worked in the buildings those crews maintained.
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.
I worked in the cafeteria. Surely that is different.
It is not treated differently. The program asks whether you worked at a covered facility, and Mercury is Area 23 of the Nevada Test Site. Claims are accepted across support roles.
I was a secretary in an office building. Does an office count?
Yes. The covered facility includes its offices. Where you sat is not what the program asks about.
I cleaned buildings for a contractor, not for REECo.
Subcontractor employees are covered the same way. Several cleaning and linen companies appear on the Department of Labor’s own subcontractor 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 →