The Justice Department reports 50,710 pending claims under the 2025 law that reauthorized the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Its November 2 table also lists 13,042 approved claims and 223 denied claims in that group.
The law provides partial restitution to people who developed certain serious illnesses after exposure to radiation from the U.S. nuclear weapons program, or to their survivors, according to the department. A pending count does not show how long any applicant has waited.
What the table counts
The department's table groups the newer claims under Public Law 119-21. It reports 63,975 total claims, including the pending, approved and denied categories. The approved amount is $909,414,184; the table labels this as dollars approved, not dollars paid.
The table lists 29,197 pending downwinder claims and 19,747 pending Manhattan Project waste claims. It lists 1,645 pending uranium-worker claims and 121 pending onsite-participant claims. These are claims, not a count of distinct people.
A separate table covers claims received before July 3, 2025. It lists two pending, 42,599 approved and 14,480 denied. Those figures are a different group and should not be presented as the newer law's totals.
What applicants can check
The program page says people may apply through its electronic portal or by mailing a claim form with original or certified supporting documents. It says the Civil Division cannot accept emailed applications and that all claims must be filed by December 31, 2027. The program lists separate eligibility requirements and forms for its claimant categories.
The department says each claim will receive an acknowledgement letter once the program files it, but warns that high application volume may delay delivery of the letter. That statement concerns acknowledgements; it is not a published estimate of decision times.
What remains unknown
The status table does not say when pending claims were filed, how long decisions took, or why individual claims remain open. The department could publish aggregate distributions of pending-claim age and decision times by category without releasing applicants' private files. Those records would help readers assess timing, but they would not explain why an individual claim remains open.