Call it Charlie Wolf's War.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall is mobilizing a coalition of senators and congressional members who have constituents like Charlie Wolf: former nuclear weapons workers who lost their health - and in some cases their lives - building the nation's Cold War nuclear arsenal.

Wolf, 50, died Wednesday. He fought brain cancer for more than six years - and struggled with a federal bureaucracy nearly that long to prove he deserved the compensation Congress had promised workers who mined radioactive metals, made them into bombs and tested the most powerful weapon on Earth.

"I'm pretty worked up about Charlie's death," Udall said Friday in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News. He noted Wolf's tenacity and constant attempts to help other sick workers around the country, even as he fought for his own life.

"Charlie is such an inspiration to many, but his case is also an example of what's wrong with the program," Udall said. "Enough is enough."

The Colorado Democrat said this war is being waged on multiple fronts. The coalition in Congress plans to ask President Barack Obama's administration for a "change in leadership" in the compensation program.

And Udall will introduce legislation soon to end the battle that Wolf and other sick workers have been fighting against the controversial federal compensation program.

The legislation will seek to streamline a constantly changing bureaucracy that sick workers say makes it impossible to prove they deserve compensation. Udall will call it the Charlie Wolf Act.

Wolf's family melted into tears in a mix of emotions Friday when they learned the legislation would be named in his honor. The tears increased when youngest daughter Stephanie, 23, added just one thought to the news.

"I wish he could have been here to know that," she said.

"I think he knows," her mother, Kathy Wolf, replied.

Udall said he met this week with Hilda Solis, Obama's pick for secretary of labor. He said problems with the compensation program were "at the top of my list."

The Department of Labor administers the compensation program, with help from the Department of Health and Human Services.

"I believe this administration will be a lot more sympathetic to these Cold War warriors," Udall said.

Congress created the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act in 2000 to aid nuclear weapons workers whose cancer and other diseases are linked to their jobs.

The program has been the subject of multiple congressional hearings and investigations.

A Rocky special report in July showed program officials had created an adversarial system that left workers or their survivors in limbo for years. Program officials kept information secret, constantly changed rules and even considered spying on some workers who filed claims.

Now, Udall said, Congress must take action to fix the problems.

"This may call for a Gordian knot- type solution where you just cut the knot," Udall said. "All the money spent processing claims and issuing denials, let's see if we can direct those resources to compensation."

Labor Department officials have said the program works well. They point out that more than $4.5 billion has been paid in compensation and medical care to nearly 36,000 workers or their families.

But most of the more than 173,000 people who've filed claims have never seen a dime.

"Replacing the leadership of the program has to be done," said Terrie Barrie, of Craig, a national advocate for sick nuclear weapons workers, including her husband, George, who machined beryllium and plutonium for atomic bombs at Rocky Flats.

"Without change, the people who've been making these decisions for the last seven years will continue making the same types of decisions."

frankl@RockyMountainNews.com