Former Piqua atomic workers may get benefits
Dayton Daily News – Ailing Cold War era workers at the Piqua Organic Moderated Reactor have received special status that makes it easier for them to qualify for medical benefits and compensation under a federal program for atomic workers who suffer from certain cancers and other illnesses caused by occupational exposures to radiation and other toxins.
“Former energy workers battling cancer should not have to struggle to receive the benefits to which they are entitled,” U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement Friday, Dec. 18. Brown sponsored legislation to grant the special status to the Piqua workers.
Workers petitioned the government for special status for people who worked at the reactor from 1963 to 1966. The status previously was granted to some former employees of the Miamisburg Mound Plant, Monsanto Chemical Co. in Dayton, and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon.
