
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280344
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ENERGY DEPARTMENT CHANGING TO PROTECT NUCLEAR ARMS MAKERS

Energy Secretary James D. Watkins on Tuesday ordered striking changes in how the nuclear weapons industry monitors the health of 100,000 workers at 17 principal plants and laboratories, including transferring the responsibility for studying the effects of radiation on those workers to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Watkins also said he would establish an executive officer, preferably a medical specialist, to become the nuclear weapons industry's first occupational safety and health director.

This action is the latest step to end the secrecy surrounding the nation's embattled nuclear weapons industry. It will also end a potential conflict of interest that has existed for decades, since the agency responsible for making atomic weapons has also been the government's largest source of information on the effects of radiation on workers.

Watkins' actions followed the recommendations of a nine-member panel of health experts he appointed in August to study how the Energy Department was overseeing the health of its atomic workers.

Tuesday he received the group's final report, which laid out a 50-point plan for reorganizing the management of the Energy Department's health programs, starting at the top of the agency.

The new director of occupational safety and health will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day program to protect workers at each weapons plant and laboratory.

The director will be responsible for developing a new and more rigorous program of surveillance for workers, including collecting radiation exposure records, injury records, medical histories and other basic health data.

Watkins said the director should have the ability to identify safety hazards immediately and the authority to investigate them.

Watkins also repeated his directions to top agency officials to make available to independent researchers the Energy Department's storehouse of data on the effects of low levels of radiation on 600,000 men and women who have worked in the weapons industry since World War II.

He said he was battling to persuade officials in his own agency to make these documents public.

by CNB