<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Court forces VA to reveal extent of veterans' contamination in Spanish nuclear disaster<br class=""><br class="">By Leo Shane III<div class="">Military Times</div><div class="">November 15, 2018<br class=""><br class=""><br class="">WASHINGTON — An appeals court will force Veterans Affairs officials to identify how many troops may have been exposed to radioactive debris from a 1966 plane crash, a move that supporters hope will be the precursor to a class-action lawsuit against the department for overdue benefits.<br class=""><br class="">On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims made the unusual ruling demanding the records' release six weeks after VA lawyers argued the information is nearly impossible to obtain, given aging and missing military records from the accident.<br class=""><br class="">But the court, by a 6-3 ruling, gave the department 30 days to determine the number of military personnel assigned to the accident clean-up, the number of veterans who have applied for benefits connected to the event, and the number who have been denied compensation. That information will be used to decide how a lawsuit on the benefits denial may proceed.<br class=""><br class=""><img class="image-lazy flex-width mediumImage" alt="Lawmaker presses for quicker action to help military clean-up crews of 1966 nuclear accident" pf-orig-src="https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/SjvObPGtjTmkKLidnf8GlFUYQg8=/147x98/filters:quality(100)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/L76N3ZSIS5FQTJTWGJMJ5BL7OU.jpg" pf-restore-src="https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/SjvObPGtjTmkKLidnf8GlFUYQg8=/147x98/filters:quality(100)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/L76N3ZSIS5FQTJTWGJMJ5BL7OU.jpg" orig-style="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: middle; border-style: none; -webkit-box-shadow: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; float: right; clear: right; margin: 1em 0px 1em 1.5em; max-width: 100%; display: inline;" apple-inline="yes" id="133E0A54-1B10-4635-A7AE-699D1C327ADE" height="98" width="147" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:1B17B897-C1B9-4EC8-9068-FFD2EC1E9F05@gateway.sonic.net">…<br class=""><br class="">For the entire article, see<br class=""><a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/11/14/court-forces-va-to-reveal-extent-of-veterans-contamination-in-spanish-nuclear-disaster/" class="">https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/11/14/court-forces-va-to-reveal-extent-of-veterans-contamination-in-spanish-nuclear-disaster/</a><br class=""><br class=""><div class="">--<br class=""><br class="">Lenny Siegel<br class="">Executive Director<br class="">Center for Public Environmental Oversight<br class="">a project of the Pacific Studies Center<br class="">P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042<br class="">Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 <br class=""><lsiegel@cpeo.org><br class="">http://www.cpeo.org<br class=""></div><br class=""></div></body></html>