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... "I made a good living there but I am not happy that I am this sick. And there are people who worked there that are sicker than me," Hicks, 70, said in an interview with Reuters.

Assembling the petitions is a complicated process. It can take years to gather the thousands of pages of evidence required to document the causes of 22 types of cancer the U.S. government recognizes as associated with radiation exposure at its nuclear workplaces.

Now Hicks' effort to win benefits and compensation for him and thousands of nuclear workers is in limbo after the HHS suspended indefinitely the expert medical bodies charged with reviewing those claims, according to interviews with 18 former workers, board members and administration officials.

And some of Hicks' petitioners do not have time to wait. ...