Compensation scheme for radiation-linked diseases

The Compensation scheme for radiation-linked diseases is a workers compensation scheme administered by the UK government. It was established in November 1982 by British Nuclear Fuels Limited and its trade unions following legal actions brought against the company by nuclear industry workers in the late 1970s. At the time of its establishment, BNFL and its trade unions agreed that the causation of cancer by radiation was sufficiently well understood that "it should be possible to construct a scheme which would evaluate the probability that a diagnosed cancer may have been caused by radiation exposure at work." Initially the scheme only accepted claims in which a worker had died from a radiation-linked disease. In 1987 this was expanded to allow morbidity claims. The list of participating member employers and trade unions has grown through the 1990s and 2000s. As of December 2015, 1525 claims have been made out of which 156 have been successful.

In order to be eligible for compensation, a worker must have been employed by a listed company, and have received an occupational radiation dose. Then the claimant must have developed cancer of the bladder, bone, brain and central nervous system, breast or uterus (for female workers), colon, liver, oesophagus, respiratory or lung, prostate, ovary, skin (non-Melanoma), thyroid or other tissues. Other compensable diseases include cataracts and leukaemias (with two exceptions). Some diseases are excluded on the basis that there is no convincing epidemiological evidence to link them with ionising radiation exposure. Excluded diseases include: Hodgkin’s disease, hairy cell leukaemia, chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL), malignant melanoma and mesothelioma.

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