AIKEN, S.C. () — Former Savannah River Site workers dealing with health issues can get help filing for benefits.

Nuclear Care Partners is helping workers file claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. It covers cancers, neuropathy, hearing loss, and offers medical benefits plus a $150,000 lump sum for some diagnoses. “If you have lung issues, you can’t have your personal doctor say, you got COPD and let’s file a claim and it go to the DOL. You need to see a pulmonologist who specializes in that,” Benefits Manager John Wall said. “So that’s kind of what we do is to try to push ’em in the right direction.”

For many, these benefits can be critical for covering medical costs. The risks at the Savannah River Site were substantial. “You had a lot of radiation, different kinds, plutonium, uranium, different things out there,” he shared. “You had people that worked there in the fifties, sixties and seventies and the early eighties that it’s probably affected more than, a lot of others.”

Wall also shared a lot of people don’t know about the ‘white card.’ It’s a federal benefits card covering medical expenses for approved conditions. They can also get a physical every three years, paid for by the Department of Energy. “There’s so many people that have gone through these screening programs and found out that they had some kind of cancer of some type, and they caught it early enough to get it taken care of.”

Spouses and caregivers can also be compensated for in-home care. “The DOL will pay them through our company, or pay us to pay them, for taking care of ’em, for cooking their bills, for cleaning help, cleaning up behind them for taking ’em to doctor appointments and things like that.”

There’s another event on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sweetwater Country Club in Barnwell.

You can also contact Nuclear Care Partners.