http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14640343Justice Dept. sends interns to Four Corners to spread word about radiation exposure payments
By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post
Posted: 03/09/2010 10:57:19 AM MST
Updated: 03/09/2010 05:14:23 PM MST
The U.S. Justice Department announced today that it has launched an "intensive outreach effort" in the Four Corners area to Native Americans and their families whose work in the uranium industry during the Cold War benefitted the United States but exposed them to radiation.
Tony West, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a news release that workers and their families may be entitled to compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).
Under the act, people in the following categories may receive payments: uranium miners, millers and ore transporters; people who were present at nuclear weapons test sites; and people who lived in certain areas "downwind" of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.
In the latest outreach in the Four Corners area - Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona - the Justice Department has developed an internship program using part-time college and graduate students recruited from tribal communities.
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In order to be eligible for the RECA internship, applicants must be students in good standing. Two Washington, D.C. training sessions will be offered: June 7 to June 18, and July 26 to Aug. 6.
The deadline for applicants for the June training sessions is April 15. The deadline for the July training session is May 1.
Applications will be available at www.justice.gov/civil/Employment.htm on Wednesday.
Or interested students may contact RECA staff at 202-616-4304 or civil.rec@usdoj.gov to have an application mailed to them.
West will speak about the internships to students at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff on March 29; University of New Mexico students in Gallup on March 30 and at Dine College in Shiprock, N.M, on March 31.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
edit to add: the article is about two weeks old, the applications should be at the website.