| The story at first seemed straightforward: A plant that had been processing fuel for nuclear weapons 50 years ago had not taken safety precautions and had endangered the lives of workers. But as Peter Eisler of USA Today dug into the files and spoke to people involved in the nuclear program, he found that scores of plants were involved and that thousands of workers had been exposed to radiation levels a hundred times greater than the acceptable limits. The workers, he learned, were not told of the risks in handling uranium, thorium and other hazardous materials. The areas in which these plants operated were dangerously contaminated as well. |
Eisler learned this by digging through more than 100,000 pages of government documents, which he fed into a spreadsheet. He also interviewed men who had worked in the plants. Some — like John L. Smith shown here — were ill, and they suspected that their work had endangered their health.