An outside review by the university "basically said the same things, needs to be done and the methods look good," Lyon said. "So I don't know what's going on at the CDC. It's a total puzzle to us.

"But essentially they're saying, 'We don't want your study.' "

Only about half of the $8 million spent so far was used in the research, because overhead took a huge amount, he said.

Among this group, "We've already reported that there's an excess of benign tumors of the thyroid gland," Lyon said.

"I've been working on this now since 1977," he said. "I'm about ready to retire, and I'm sort of saying, 'I'd like to finish up this thyroid study and get more definitive information.' "

The scientists are protesting against the end of the funding, "and we are upset about it," he said. "We've got pretty strong indications that there are other disease problems that ought to be looked at."

Jay Truman, founder and director of the group Downwinders and one of the former students, said the government was wrong to halt funding. This was supposed to be a definitive study, he said.

"All of us downwind are still, as we were at the time the heaviest fallout fell, expendable!" Truman added.

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