§1677 Nuclear resource development health hazards

Summary

Require a study of health dangers to Indian miners and other Indians living on or near reservations from nuclear resource development. The study must check current health problems and their causes, look at how present and future nuclear activities might affect Indian communities, review the kinds of work and conditions that cause those problems (for example, uranium mining and milling, mine tailings, power plants, and waste disposal), summarize relevant Federal and State findings from the five years before December 17, 1980, and describe what agencies and companies have done to teach Indians about these risks. The finished study must be sent to Congress no later than 18 months after December 17, 1980. Use the study to make a health care plan that explains how to diagnose and treat people already sick, how to prevent and monitor exposures (including radiation monitoring), and how to educate workers and nearby residents. That plan must be reported within one year after the study is sent to Congress and must list suggested actions and evaluate past Service efforts. The law also creates an Intergovernmental Task Force made up of five named officials (Secretary of Energy; EPA Administrator; Director of the Bureau of Mines; Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health; and Secretary of the Interior) to find and fix health hazards and to lower future risks. The Secretary will chair the Task Force, which must meet at least twice a year. Subsection (e) applies to any Indian who (1) has a work-related illness from employment in or near a uranium mine or mill, (2) can get diagnosis and treatment from a Service facility, and (3) is, because of that employment, entitled to medical care paid by the mine or mill operator.