Catherwood LibraryILR School

Navajo workers who mined uranium for use in America's atomic arsenal are in a fight with the Department of Labor for compensation for illness and, in some cases, death resulting from exposure to toxic materials. Representatives of the Navajo workers believe the government is stonewalling compensation claims through a Byzantine cycle of paperwork, reviews, and red tape. In addition, the workers charge the government with using faulty exposure estimates, forcing officials to continuously revise exposure estimates for claimants, a process workers charge has cost taxpayers $280 million in administrative costs to contractors in charge of the estimates. Meanwhile, claimants and their surviving families are standing their ground, and appealing to Congress for help in recovering what they feel is their due for their part in the Cold War.