When we learned about recent high-level meetings within the administration on resuming nuclear weapons testing, it rang alarm bells. Thousands of Utahns are still dealing with trauma inflicted by bombs exploded from decades past. The atomic testing era that only ended in 1992 leaves a legacy of illness, suffering and death as a result of the government’s deceit about the dangers of nuclear weapons testing.
After a bomb test called “Dirty Harry” in 1953, the government’s own safety monitor at the Nevada Test Site was told not to warn folks of danger. Later, he testified in court that a safety memo he wrote that day was falsified, and he had lowered the radiation levels resulting from the blast. The memo claimed warnings had been issued to people to stay indoors when, in fact, no warnings were issued.
Hard-working, self-reliant, patriotic citizens in Utah cities and towns trusted their government when it told them they were safe. In classified memos, government bureaucrats dismissed us as a “low-use segment of the population.”
From declassified documents and hidden government files, we now know the real story — we know that the government lied. In 1980, the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce investigated the deaths of 4,500 sheep that died from exposure to radioactive fallout on the Utah range in 1953. The committee concluded that “the Atomic Energy Commission has engaged in a sophisticated scientific cover-up aimed at protecting the testing program in Nevada at any cost.”
The stories we hear from “Downwinders” today, from people still grieving for family members lost — often as children — to cancer, motivates my work in Congress to hold the government accountable and to stop any new nuclear weapons testing.
As former BYU law school dean Rex Lee said, during the fight in the 1980s for federal compensation, “Federal policymakers decided to run some enormous risks. Innocent American citizens were involuntarily and unwittingly made the subject of those risks. And had thrust upon them the brunt of those risks.”
It took decades, and many untimely deaths, but the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) finally brought a measure of accountability, providing payments for cancers such as leukemia, thyroid, breast, liver and lung. The law provides eligibility to residents of 10 Utah counties; Downwinders get a one-time payment of $50,000. Uranium workers are eligible for one-time payments of $100,000. Despite scientific research showing the national reach of the toxic clouds, much of Utah and 11 “downwind” states are left out. To right that wrong, I’ve signed onto the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments bill introduced by New Mexico Congressman Ben Ray Luján. It extends the life of the RECA trust fund from 2022 to 2045 and ensures all “downwind” states are covered.
It is unconscionable that this administration is moving to resume testing. In addition to putting the Nevada Test Site on notice, the Defense Department has requested funds for preparations. Yet U.S. experts have certified the safety and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear arsenal for the past 24 years, assuring leaders that our stockpile remains safe, secure and reliable without the need for testing.
I have successfully pushed House leaders to put language in next year’s spending bills, prohibiting the use of funds for test-site readiness or weapons testing. I’m also putting forward an amendment to a defense bill to block funding for new testing as well. These are timely and important Congressional steps, but I will not rest until that prohibition becomes law.
We have paid dearly for trusting the government in the past when they told us nuclear weapons testing was safe. Nuclear clouds must never again threaten the health and safety of those living downwind.
Rep. Ben McAdams represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.