LAS VEGAS - Sen. Harry Reid says it is ''haunting'' the United States didn't realize the toll that would be imposed by the nation's nuclear weapons testing program.
Reid made his comment Wednesday after meeting with former Nevada Test Site workers and their survivors.
Reid and other members of Nevada's congressional delegation are pushing to provide compensation for workers who tested the nation's nuclear arsenal at a site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
''The purpose of the meeting was to focus attention on thousands of people who were exposed to things nuclear that made them sick, and in some cases killed them,'' Reid said.
At issue is legislation that would include test site workers and their survivors in a compensation program for radiation victims.
The Clinton administration earlier this year acknowledged that the nation's nuclear weapons program left a legacy of workers who suffered from radiation-related illnesses.
The administration announced last month it was ending a longstanding policy of automatically denying claims of workers and their spouses who think they were exposed to toxic materials while working in the nuclear weapons complex.
Dr. David Michaels, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for environment, safety and health, attended a hearing in Las Vegas earlier this year in which former workers and their survivors told of illnesses and deaths attributed to work at the test site.
Michaels returned to Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with some of the victims, offering hope that Congress will approve $100 million or more to provide compensation. Reid, D-Nev., said compensation could range from lump sum payments of $200,000 for those who died of radiation-related illnesses to insurance coverage for those still being treated.
''It's haunting that we didn't know any better,'' Reid said of illnesses that have surfaced in the wake of the weapons testing program.
Reid said as many as 100,000 Southern Nevadans worked at the test site over a 40-year period that began in 1951.
''I think there's a general sense of relief in the community of the victims that there's something being done on behalf of them,'' the senator said.
''It's very important for me to bring information back to Washington to help those who worked under very dangerous conditions,'' Michaels said.
''Everyone at the meeting was very moved,'' Michaels said. ''There are many studies regarding the health of the workers, but when you see the workers and hear what they went through, you can't help but be moved to tears and want to help them.
''Statistics,'' Michaels said, ''are people with the tears washed off.''
