HomeVeterans Guide to VA BenefitsVA Compensation-Service Connected Disability Conditions due to Legal PresumptionsRadiation-exposed Veterans

6.8. Radiation-exposed Veterans

Qualification under the presumptive provision of 38 U.S.C. section 1112(c) occurs when a veteran suffers from one of the fifteen listed cancers, and establishes participation in a "radiation risk activity" defined as:

(i)    Onsite participation in a test involving the atmospheric detonation of a nuclear device.
(ii)   The occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan, by United States forces during the period beginning on August 6, 1945, and ending on July 1, 1946.
(iii) Internment as prisoner of war in Japan (or service on active duty in Japan immediately following such internment) during World War II which (as determined by the Secretary) resulted in an opportunity for exposure to ionizing radiation comparable to that of veterans described in clause (ii) of this subparagraph.

38 U.S.C. § 1112(c)(4)(B); Hardin v. West, 11 Vet. App. 74, 77-78 (1998).  A veteran's radiation exposure that does not constitute a "radiation-risk activity" as defined by the statute is not entitled to the statutory presumption of service connection in section 1112(c).  Lasovick v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 141, 146-47 (1994).

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