Group urges nuke fallout area expansion

BOISE, Idaho — Atmospheric nuclear weapon testing exposed more states and more people to radiation fallout and resulting cancer and other diseases than the federal government currently recognizes, a group representing Western governors said.

The Western Governors’ Association on Friday sent letters to the U.S. Senate and U.S. House urging passage of proposed changes to a law involving “downwinders.”

The U.S. between 1945 and 1992 conducted more than 1,000 nuclear weapon tests, nearly 200 in the atmosphere. Most were conducted in Western states or islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Legislation introduced earlier this year by U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, called the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019 would also include those who lived downwind of the 1945 Trinity Test in New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin.

The measure would amend the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to add all of Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and include for the first time Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and the island territory of Guam. It would also increase the maximum payment to $150,000 for someone filing a claim. Compensation currently includes lump sums of $100,000 for uranium workers and $50,000 for those who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site. Passed in 1990, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was an alternative to litigation to ensure the federal government met its financial responsibilities to workers who became sick as a result of the radiation hazards of their jobs.