Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988

(Measure passed Senate, amended, roll call #109 (48-30))

Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988 - Amends Federal veterans' benefits provisions to establish (for purposes of eligibility for such benefits) a presumption of service-connection for the following diseases suffered by any radiation-exposed veteran: (1) leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia); (2) thyroid cancer; (3) breast cancer; (4) cancer of the pharynx; (5) cancer of the esophagus; (6) cancer of the stomach; (7) cancer of the small intestine; (8) cancer of the pancreas; (9) multiple myeloma; (10) lymphomas (except Hodgkin's disease); (11) cancer of the bile ducts; (12) cancer of the gall bladder; and (13) primary liver cancer (except if cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated). Requires all of such diseases, in order to be considered service-connected, to have become manifest to a degree of ten percent or more within 40 years after the last date on which the veteran participated in a radiation-risk activity, except that such period shall be the 30-year period beginning on such date in the case of leukemia. Defines "radiation-exposed veteran" as a veteran who participated in a radiation-risk activity while serving on active duty. Defines "radiation-risk activity" as: (1) onsite participation in the atmospheric detonation of a nuclear device; (2) the U.S. occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan, between August 6, 1945, and July 1, 1946; or (3) internment as a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II which resulted in the opportunity for radiation exposure.

Amends the Veterans' Dioxin and Radiation Exposure Compensation Standards Act to require the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards to submit to the Senate and House Veterans' Affairs Committees periodic reports regarding results of scientific studies relating to possible adverse health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation.