O'Leary publicly appealed to the U.S. government to consider compensating individuals harmed by government-sponsored ionizing radiation studies from 1940-1970s.
On December 28, 1993, Secretary O'Leary made a significant public appeal to both the executive and legislative branches of the United States government, urging serious consideration of compensation for individuals who had been harmed by ionizing radiation experiments conducted under government sponsorship between 1940 and the early 1970s.
This appeal was a direct outgrowth of her Department of Energy's Openness Initiative, which had begun declassifying documents revealing the scope and details of Cold War-era human radiation experiments — many conducted without informed consent on vulnerable populations, including hospital patients, prisoners, and members of the military.
O'Leary's willingness to publicly acknowledge government wrongdoing and advocate for victim compensation was considered a courageous and unprecedented act of institutional accountability for a sitting Cabinet secretary. It helped catalyze national attention on the issue, including the work of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments established by President Clinton, and contributed to later compensation programs and formal government apologies.
This moment exemplifies O'Leary's broader legacy of transparency and ethical leadership at the Department of Energy, transforming what had been one of the most secretive federal agencies into one that publicly confronted its own historical abuses.