[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION, VETERANS: "Court forces VA to reveal extent of veterans' contamination in Spanish nuclear disaster"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Court forces VA to reveal extent of veterans' contamination in Spanish nuclear disaster

By Leo Shane III

Military Times

November 15, 2018


WASHINGTON — An appeals court will force Veterans Affairs officials to identify how many troops may have been exposed to radioactive debris from a 1966 plane crash, a move that supporters hope will be the precursor to a class-action lawsuit against the department for overdue benefits.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims made the unusual ruling demanding the records' release six weeks after VA lawyers argued the information is nearly impossible to obtain, given aging and missing military records from the accident.

But the court, by a 6-3 ruling, gave the department 30 days to determine the number of military personnel assigned to the accident clean-up, the number of veterans who have applied for benefits connected to the event, and the number who have been denied compensation. That information will be used to decide how a lawsuit on the benefits denial may proceed.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/11/14/court-forces-va-to-reveal-extent-of-veterans-contamination-in-spanish-nuclear-disaster/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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