VA Radiation Claims Processing Requirements

1. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wants to ensure that all Veterans, including
those who served in the Armed Forces during the 1970s and 1980s have access to
quality medical care and benefits. This includes a small group of Vterans who
served on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The majority of these Veterans
left active duty many years ago and continue to use VA either as their primary or
supplementary healthcare.
If a Veteran served on Eniwetok during a period not specified in the regulation making
the Veteran eligible for presumptive service connection, the Veteran may establish
service connection based on exposure to ionizing radiation under 38 C.F.R. § 3.311.
Under this regulation, the evidence must show that (1) the Veteran developed one of
the radiogenic diseases identified under § 3.311(b)(2), or submit competent scientific
or medical evidence that the claimed disability is a radiogenic disease, (2) the
radiogenic disease became manifest within a period specified in § 3.311(b)(5), and (3)
the Veteran was exposed to ionizing radiation as a result of participation in:
• Atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.
• The occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan, prior to July 1, 1946.
• Other radiation risk activities, where occupational exposure is based on the
Veteran’s military occupational specialty or may result from the Veteran
having performed duty in an area involving exposure to ionizing radiation.
Service performing the cleanup mission on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands
between 1977 and 1980 would fall under other radiation risk activities, occupational
exposure.
Establishment of service connection for a radiogenic disease due to ionizing radiation
exposure under § 3.311 requires VA to obtain the radiation exposure dose information,
either from the Veteran’s service records or from the appropriate branch of service
which maintains a record of its service members' occupational exposure to radiation.
These records normally include but may not be limited to the Veteran’s Record of
Occupational Exposure to Ionizing Radiation (DD Form 1141). Once the radiation dose
information is obtained, VA may either decide the claim based on all the evidence of
record or request a medical opinion from the Veterans Health Administration that
addresses the likelihood of whether the Veteran’s in-service occupational radiation
exposure caused the current radiogenic disease. If VA requests a medical opinion, VA
will render a decision on entitlement to compensation benefits for the radiogenic
disease upon receipt of that opinion. Since 2006, the VA has moved adjudication of
all ionizing radiation claims to the Jackson MS Regional Office.

2. Specific radiogenic diseases listed in 38 C.F.R. § 3.311 are below:
(i) All forms of leukemia except chronic lymphatic (lymphocytic) leukemia;
(ii) Thyroid cancer;
(iii) Breast cancer;
(iv) Lung cancer;
(v) Bone cancer;
(vi) Liver cancer;
(vii) Skin cancer;
(viii) Esophageal cancer;
(ix) Stomach cancer;
(x) Colon cancer;
(xi) Pancreatic cancer;
(xii) Kidney cancer;
(xiii) Urinary bladder cancer;
(xiv) Salivary gland cancer;
(xv) Multiple myeloma;
(xvi) Posterior subcapsular cataracts;
(xvii) Non-malignant thyroid nodular disease;
(xviii) Ovarian cancer;
(xix) Parathyroid adenoma;
(xx) Tumors of the brain and central nervous system;
(xxi) Cancer of the rectum;
(xxii) Lymphomas other than Hodgkin's disease;
(xxiii) Prostate cancer;
(xxiv) Any other cancer.
We have attached background documents on the general claims process, a VA
brochure on Atomic Veterans, and a report on VA’s presumptive service condition
process that we hope you will find informative.
For further information on VA’s radiation exposure programs can be found at the
below website:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/radiation/
The specific law, 38 CFR 3.311, can be found at this link http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-
bin/text-idx?SID=dd5c2a3a4d6377c0b256d722aeba0f25&node=se38.1.3_1311&rgn=div8