President Clinton signed landmark legislation Monday to provide the first widespread compensation to Hanford and other nuclear workers sickened by exposure to radiation, beryllium or silica.

"It's great news," said Jim Williamson of Kennewick. "Hopefully, it can get some help to families in need, who are going through what my dad did."

At a public hearing in February, Williamson told Department of Energy officials his father, Jack, after working at Hanford for 26 years, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, asbestosis and a bone marrow disease that also has been found in the survivors of Hiroshima.

His father died at the age of 69.

While the bill signed by Clinton proposes compensation for survivors, Williamson said he's more concerned about prompt action to provide medical help for workers currently sick.

"I hope this does not drag on too long," he said.

The bill gives the president until March 15 to give Congress a proposal identifying the types and amounts of compensation for nuclear workers and the procedures for providing the compensation. Congress would have until July 31 to pass it.

If that does not happen, a plan outlined in the bill signed Monday would take effect. It provides lump sum payments of $150,000 to workers or their survivors and also would include medical care for those still living.

Workers would have to choose whether to accept the payment or take their chances in court to see if they could win a larger settlement. They would be given 30 months to make that decision.

About 600,000 people worked at Hanford and other nuclear weapons sites during the Cold War. DOE officials estimate 3,000 to 4,000 would be eligible for compensation.

That includes Hanford workers who may have developed cancer because of exposure to radiation and workers who developed a chronic lung disease after breathing tiny particles of beryllium, an exotic metal used in an alloy developed to close the ends of nuclear reactor fuel rods at Hanford until 1986.

DOE officials say current safety practices at Hanford and other nuclear sites are designed to prevent exposures that sickened workers during earlier years. However, union officials have said pressure to meet environmental cleanup deadlines means workers still may be exposed to chemical spills, asbestos and radiological hazards.

"Without the hard work of the men and women at our nation's nuclear facilities, our success in winning World War II and the Cold War would not have been possible," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., in a prepared statement. "Like combat veterans, these veterans of the Cold War deserve to have their health concerns addressed."

The bill signed Monday includes $275 million to establish the Energy Employees' Occupational Illness Compensation Program. It was included in the Fiscal Year 2001 Defense Authorization Act.

The act signed Monday also included language to bolster the local decision-making power of DOE's Office of River Protection, which manages central Hanford's 53 million gallons of radioactive wastes in 177 underground tanks. The office oversees the tanks and supervises efforts to eventually convert the wastes they contain into glass.

Struggles have erupted recently on whether DOE in Richland or DOE in Washington, D.C., should have the final say in certain key decisions on the tank farms. There is speculation in Hanford circles that this struggle was at least partly responsible for DOE removing Dick French as manager of the Office of River Protection.

Harry Boston, the office's current DOE manager, praised the Northwest congressional delegation for bolstering the Hanford office's authority. "They pushed for a strong (Office of River Protection), with the authority to get the job done," he said.

He cited U.S. Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Reps. Hastings and Norm Dicks, D-Wash., for their efforts in this matter. He singled out Hastings for leading the push. Hastings wrote the bill that originally created the Office of River Protection in early 1999.