In the 1940s, the U.S. government began mining uranium and testing nuclear weapons in the Southwest and eventually at the Nevada Test Site. Fallout from those tests drifted eastward, blanketing Utah towns with radioactive ash.
In 2023, a study revealed what many Utahns have known for generations: Radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing spread far beyond the Nevada desert. The study showed how radioactive fallout from 94 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests was carried across the nation. Utah, directly downwind of the test site, bore some of the heaviest burdens of fallout from tests and radioactive exposures from uranium mining.
“The government’s ‘Don’t worry about it’ attitude left us wondering what to believe. After the first bomb, it didn’t take long for people in St. George to start getting sick with cancer,” writes Eddie ‘Mac’ Jones in his self-published account of living in St. George during nuclear weapons testing, “You Are a Downwinder."
For decades, Utah communities have told stories of clusters of cancers, illnesses and deaths. Thanks to Utahns who stepped up, the federal government passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) on Oct. 15, 1990, 35 years ago. RECA offers one-time payments to uranium workers, onsite participants and Downwinders. It was a landmark acknowledgment of responsibility, but one that left far too many behind, including half of Utah.
This past summer, Congress reauthorized and expanded RECA. For the first time, communities in central and northern Utah, previously excluded from RECA eligibility despite well-documented fallout patterns, are able to seek compensation and acknowledgment of the sacrifices they made. This victory was the result of decades of advocacy by Downwinders, medical researchers and organizations who refused to let these stories be forgotten.
Mary Dickson, Utah Downwinder and longtime advocate, stated, “I’ve always said that the vast majority of Downwinders do not know they are. Now with RECA expansion, I am finding that many northern Utahns who now qualify for compensation are unsure if they are Downwinders. My answer to them? ‘You meet all the criteria for eligibility, so the Justice Department has determined that you are a Downwinder.’”
Today, with renewed interest in nuclear power and nuclear weapons testing, the nation is once again ramping up uranium mining and production in the United States, with Utah once again bearing the burden. To restart an industry with a history of cancers and harm risks repeating a shameful history, once again sacrificing Utahns and other Southwesterners in the name of a “national interest” of the same toxic cycle of contamination linked to uranium and nuclear fuel processing.
Mike Maxwell of SLC LDS Earth Stewardship stated, “RECA demonstrates the compassion ethics of my Latter-day Saint faith, illustrated in Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan. In the story, a man comes upon a stranger who’s been the victim of a violent assault. ‘When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.’ For people with religious faith or those without, RECA embodies the best of humanity, caring for our fellows.”
RECA is a matter of justice and responsibility: a nation that knowingly exposed its own citizens to radiation must continue to care for them. The expansion of RECA is a historic win, but Utahns are now hearing the same “it’s safe” comments of history when discussing nuclear energy. Let’s not allow the mistakes of the uranium era and the nuclear testing age to be made again under the guise of clean energy. Justice for Downwinders is not just about the past; it is a promise for the future.
If you believe you may qualify for RECA under the newly expanded program, act quickly. Visit the U.S. Department of Justice’s RECA program website for application materials. Assistance is available through Intermountain Health’s Downwinders Clinic at 435-251-4760. Beware of scammers asking for payment from your compensation as RECA applications are free, and legal fees for help with filing are capped at 2% or $2,000.