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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 13, 1990                   TAG: 9007130797
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHLAND, WASH.                                LENGTH: Short

POTENTIAL VICTIMS OF RADIATION RELEASES WANT COMPENSATION

Legally barred from suing the government, people whose health may have suffered because of huge radiation releases from the Hanford nuclear reservation began considering other ways to get compensation.

Scientists today were to start trying to determine just how much radiation people who lived downwind from Hanford were exposed to by releases into the air in the 1940s and into the Columbia River in the 1960s.

The federal government disclosed the magnitude of radiation releases Thursday, revealing for the first time that people and farmland were exposed to significant levels of potentially cancer-causing nuclear contamination.

"We really believe we're getting the truth now," said Tom Bailie, a farmer and spokesman for people living east of the southern Washington reservation.

Residents are legally barred from suing the government for damages suffered by radiation exposure, but could win compensation through congressional action, Bailie said.

An independent panel of scientists was scheduled to meet here today to begin the second phase of a five-year study. They will try to determine individual radiation exposure and health risks for those who lived downwind from the 560-square-mile site.

The first phase studied airborne radioactive iodine emissions from 1944 to 1947 and radioactive cooling water poured into the Columbia River from 1964-67.

by CNB