It is only right that the federal government compensate 3,000 nuclear weapons workers for sickness or death caused by their exposure to radiation or chemicals. But the compensation should not come at the expense of an existing program to assist cancer victims of open-air atomic tests and uranium miners, many of them Utahns.
Each group suffered as result of the production of this weaponry, whether they worked as bomb assemblers, mined and processed uranium or happened to live downwind of tests but were not warned of the possible dangers. Each deserves to be compensated for ill health or loss of life.
And each has legitimate reason for concern that funding for the program for downwinders and uranium miners could be undermined by a newly announced Clinton administration program that would give $100,000 to nuclear bomb plant employees who developed cancer — an initiative estimated to cost $400 million over its first five years.
The federal government has not fully funded the program that has benefitted Utah miners and downwinders. Valid claims are expected to outstrip appropriations by several million dollars.
The announcement of the new compensation effort comes as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, aims to expand the 1990 program by adding certain types of eligible cancers and by streamlining qualification processes. Hatch sought the amendment after a Deseret News series showed more than half the people who apply are now denied compensation because they have the wrong cancer, lived a few miles the wrong direction or cannot prove easily they meet all the qualifications.
The new compensation plan, announced earlier this week by U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, would require congressional approval. While the timing of the announcement appears to be politically motivated, humanity must supercede any perceived political gain in this case.
Congress should surely assist those who became ill or died of a result of their exposure to radiation and chemicals while assembling bombs in defense of this nation. But it must also strike a balance on behalf of the miners who supplied the raw materials for the bombs and people exposed during open-air testing of the weapons.