Fort Belvoir, Virginia, June 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is now taking applications for and will soon start awarding Atomic Veterans Service Certificates (AVSC), on behalf of the Secretary of Defense. The certificates honor retired and former members of the Armed Forces who were exposed to radiation during the development of an atomic bomb during and after World War II, the post-war occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or any test of a nuclear weapon with an atmospheric detonation. The certificates will also be granted to next-of-kin of deceased veterans.
Authorized in the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, the AVSC is intended to recognize the approximately half-a-million veterans who were, or could have been exposed to radiation, during the development, use or testing of nuclear weapons. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency was selected to manage the AVSC program due to its existing expertise of determining radiation exposure through the Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) Program. The awarding of an AVSC does not guarantee any benefits; that process remains with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, which works with the NTPR Program to determine eligibility.
Veterans and their next-of-kin can find the AVSC application form, procedures, and additional information about the certificate program on the DTRA website here:https://www.dtra.mil/Mission/Nuclear-Test-Personnel-Review/Atomic-Veterans-Service-Certificate/. Eventually the entire process will be online, but for now they can print off an application and send it to DTRA at the address below:
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Attn: RD-NTS (NTPR)
8725 John J. Kingman Rd. STOP 6201
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201
For a list of qualifying atmospheric testing operations and information, please refer to our Operation/Project fact sheets located at https://www.dtra.mil/DTRA-Mission/Reference-Documents/NTPR-Info/.
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Mission
DTRA enables the Department of Defense, the U.S. Government, and international partners to counter and deter Weapons of Mass Destruction and Improvised Threat Networks.
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