Most of the nation's ailing nuclear arms workers haven't received a dime of the money the U.S. Congress set aside for them, government records reveal.

U.S. Labor Department statistics indicate that one-in-four sick workers or their survivors has been compensated, the Rocky Mountain News reported Monday.

Figures provided by the department show it takes victims an average of three years to qualify for aid.

While some 165,000 claims have been filed, fewer than 43,000 have been paid.

The newspaper says an investigation it conducted found that the government has derailed aid to ill workers by keeping reports secret, constantly changing the rules and delaying cases until applicants die.

"The bureaucracy has placed so many barriers, it's almost criminal that workers and their families are not being compensated," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told the Rocky Mountain News.

Richardson, who served as energy secretary during the Clinton administration, helped create the compensation program for Americans who became ill as a result of building atomic weapons to defend the United States.