Uranium miners honored at remembrance event

    GRANTS - The first annual National Day of Remembrance in honor of former uranium and nuclear workers was observed Friday at the Cibola Convention Center.

    The national event followed a resolution by the U.S. Senate, with the Department of Energy picking up the baton and organizing several remembrance events across the country, including a major event in Los Alamos.

    Locally the ceremony was organized by the Cold War Patriots, a non-profit advocacy group for those who worked in the uranium and weapons industries. You may have noticed a couple of PT Cruisers painted with a Cold War Patriots motif around town and wondered, as we did, what this group's mission was.

    “This is your day,” Governor Bill Richardson said at the ceremony in Grants. “Congress made this your day, all those who participated and worked to protect this country. For years the federal government was blind to your needs. They did not recognize the issues and illnesses that followed.”

    Ron Elmlinger, spokesman for the Cold War Patriots organization, explained that the group has at least 3,000 members across the country who lobby for more federal benefits for uranium and weapons workers who developed illnesses from exposure to uranium.

    “There are certain deficiencies in the RECA program, which was established to help these workers.     For example, miners who worked the uranium mines after 1972 don't qualify for the program,” he said. Miners who worked before that year were awarded $100,000 each.

    “We want RECA to cover those who worked in the nuclear weapons industry, but it's harder for them to prove the connection between their health issues and their exposure at work. We think the benefits should be more equalized between the miners and the weapons workers.”

    Elmlinger noted that Senator Tom Udall is planning to introduce an amendment to legislation that would accomplish the equalization.

    He explained that some of the diseases faced by uranium workers include lung cancer, silicosis and kidney disease, especially among those who handled yellow cake in the milling process.

    “Miners and millers didn't have much protection in those days,” he remarked.

Richardson announced at the event in Grants that $5 billion has been given out in benefits related to uranium workers.

    “We have been successful in gathering benefits for you guys,” the governor added.

    “We are here to say thanks and we want to protect you guys.”

    According to Elmlinger, 3,000 uranium workers in New Mexico qualify for the RECA program. “There are at least 100 who worked at Sandia Laboratory and 300 who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. These figures don't include those who have already died and family members who became ill from contamination brought home by the miners and millers on their clothes,” he pointed out. “The Navajos really took a hard hit from uranium mining.”

    The celebration included the reading of a proclamation from the U.S. Senate and the screening of a video produced by an Oscar winner.

    “We want to express reverence and remembrance and thank the miners and their families.”

Another aspect of the celebration was the filling of two time capsules, one here in Grants and another at the test site museum in Las Vegas, Nev. They will be buried next year at the Nevada bomb test site in accordance with the wishes of the Department of Energy.

    After Richardson's speech, he placed the first item in the capsule in Grants.

    Local state Representative Ken Martinez spoke briefly after Richardson saying, “One of my great opportunities is to represent uranium workers as a representative and as an attorney. It is fitting to refer to the uranium worker as a Cold War Patriot. Most uranium workers would say 'if I had to do it again, I would. Because I fed my family.'”

    Martinez and Richardson mentioned Grants resident the late Paul Hicks at the meeting, recognizing him as one of the hero's that helped push legislation through for uranium workers.

     “Remember the power of one,” Martinez said. “Remember Paul Hicks. It all started here and it's gone all the way to Washington. We thank the patriots for all their contributions and sacrifices.”