Deadly Denial series

An investigation by the Rocky Mountain News examined the federal program to compensate the people who became sick building the nation’s nuclear weapons. The paper found that the agencies running the program, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services, have derailed aid to workers by keeping reports secret from them, constantly changing rules and delaying cases until sick workers died. Workers — and their survivors — from every state in the nation are mired in program so adversarial that top program officials once considered putting some sick workers under government surveillance. At the same time, top officials have collected large bonuses.