Many hundreds of workers have fallen ill due to work performed over the years at the Pantex nuclear arms facility northeast of Amarillo.
As The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, since an employee compensation program began in 2000, over $171 million has been doled out to 1,300 workers and their families, to compensate for various forms of cancers contracted while working with nuclear materials at the plant.
Several years ago, the Federal government was only compensating about one in five claimants. Today, over half of claimants are given monetary compensation and medical care because of a preponderance of evidence that their illnesses were caused by their work at Pantex.
One worker who has been dismantling warheads at Pantex since 1982 told the Star-Telegram that he believes his throat cancer was caused by his work there. “I didn't think much about it at the time, but I do believe that’s what caused my cancer,” he said.