American Gen. HP Storke and other military personnel emerge from their foxholes to observe the atomic bomb explosion at the Nevada Proving Grounds, a nuclear testing site near Camp Desert Rock, Nevada, on May 15, 1952. (United States Army/FPG/Archive Photos via Getty Images)
It takes several minutes for Claudia Peterson, a St. George resident and Cedar City native, to list off all the family and friends who have died from or been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer that she says was caused by nuclear weapons testing in Nevada.
Peterson’s father was diagnosed with a brain tumor; her youngest daughter was diagnosed with neuroblastoma and later died from elastic leukemia; her sister died from melanoma; two of her sister’s children died in their 30s from cancer, while three more had colon cancer; her grandchild died from some kind of genetic mutation; a family friend died of lymphoma in his 30s; their FedEx driver died from a brain tumor; a neighbor died of breast cancer; their church bishop died of bone cancer; another neighbor died from stomach cancer.
“It was everywhere, and everybody has a sad story here. It’s not that my story is any different than anyone else’s. We do our family reunions at the cemetery,” said Peterson. “My friends have died. My neighbors have died. Their children are getting sick and dying now. This is the legacy that they’ve left us. And then we have to beg and ask for compensation.”
Several studies suggest all of Utah was blanketed with dangerous levels of radiation, stemming from above ground nuclear weapons testing during the late 1950s and early 1960s. For years, residents who lived in certain Utah counties during that period and were later diagnosed with certain cancers were eligible for compensation from the federal government through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA.
But RECA expired in June after Congress failed to extend it.
Now, five months later, downwinders like Peterson are urging the U.S. House of Representatives — particularly Utah’s delegation — to pass a bill that would revive and expand the program to include people who likely got cancer from nuclear testing, but were never eligible.
Downwinders make appeal to Utah’s U.S. House delegation to pass RECA
On Thursday, Peterson and a number of Utah and western-based downwinders and advocacy groups sent a letter to Utah’s House delegation — which includes Republican Reps. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, John Curtis and Burgess Owens — urging them to endorse and support reauthorizing and expanding RECA.
Signed by groups like Alliance for a Better Utah, Downwinders, Inc., Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance, the letter asks Utah’s House delegation to throw their support behind a bill sponsored by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, which passed the Senate in March after getting 69 “yes” votes and 30 “no” votes.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., talks to reporters after an amendment vote on the infrastructure bill at the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 4, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Both of Utah’s U.S. Senators, Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, voted no on the bill. In the letter sent Thursday, advocates called their votes “shameful.”
“We also ask that you convey your position of support to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House leadership. We know that you are well aware of the issues surrounding RECA, as this is the 3rd letter we have sent to the Utah delegation, as of yet with little or no response,” the letter reads.
Hawley’s bill, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, would increase how much compensation downwinders could receive, expand eligibility for certain uranium workers, and widen the current definition of an “affected area” to include all of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Guam.
It would also cover parts of Hawley’s district near St. Louis, where creek water was contaminated by radiation during nuclear weapons development.
Hawley’s bill would significantly expand RECA, a program that advocates and downwinders say was already too narrow before it expired. In Utah, the program covered residents who lived in 10 counties — Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne — for two consecutive years from 1951 to 1958, or during the summer of 1962.
People who worked in uranium mines, mills or transporting ore in Utah from 1942 to 1971 were also eligible.
Victims of fallout from nuclear testing still seek compensation
Downwinders point to research suggesting fallout from nuclear testing impacted the entire Beehive State, including recent findings from the University of Utah that found all of Utah was blanketed by Iodine-131, a radioactive material. Other studies show the fallout traveled well beyond Utah’s borders, with radiation detected as far as Vermont, transported by wind and weather patterns, similar to how wildfire smoke in Oregon and Washington often ends up in the Salt Lake Valley.
“Given that there is no completely safe level of radiation exposure, there is a bottom line here. Only a tiny fraction of victims have been compensated,” said Dr. Brian Moench, a cancer survivor who now serves as the board president for Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.
“Even though Utah has been the most affected state, so far none of our congressional delegation has been willing to support this legislation,” Moench said. “The only country that has ever detonated nuclear bombs over American citizens is our own. That moral failure has been compounded by the indifference and cruelty of Utah’s congressional delegation turning their backs on their own constituents. We all deserve better.”
Moench spoke Thursday during a call with other downwinders and advocates, including Peterson. The issue isn’t going away — scores of people were never able to apply for RECA compensation, they said. Some lived outside the eligible counties. Others have trouble proving their residency. Some were diagnosed with cancer proven to be linked to radiation, but not covered under RECA.
Despite the program’s lapse, the U.S. Department of Justice was still sifting through more than 1,000 pending claims for compensation this summer, indicating payouts from RECA are still in demand.
“This is an issue that is ongoing. These health issues are snowballing. It’s not something that happened in the past, because the second, third generation of illnesses are spiking,” said Peterson.
But the scope of Hawley’s expansion — particularly lumping in people in Hawley’s district — appears to be a sticking point for Rep. Celeste Maloy, who told reporters after her congressional debate on Oct. 14 that it would cost too much, and therefore won’t get a vote in the House.
Despite lapse in compensation for downwinders, there are still more than 1,000 pending claims
“We can’t reauthorize it currently because of a Senate bill that ties radiation exposure in Utah from mushroom clouds, together with a superfund site in Missouri. That adds a lot of new costs,” she said. “So that bill won’t come up for a vote in the House. The House will not take up a bill that has that much unpaid liability.”
Maloy said she’s negotiating with Hawley and other lawmakers in the House to find a path forward, calling the lapse in RECA “frustrating.”
“I have conveyed to them the urgency that we have here in Utah,” she said. “They are owed compensation, but it isn’t currently authorized.”
Rep. Blake Moore has previously thrown his support behind a bill initially introduced in 2023 by Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman. Called the Uranium Miners and Workers Act of 2023, the bill extends RECA benefits to people who worked in a uranium mine or mill until 1978, but still excludes much of Utah.
Rep. John Curtis told Utah News Dispatch in May that he supports reauthorizing RECA without widely expanding it, though he said he hopes to find a middle ground.
And Rep. Burgess Owens has previously said when RECA got its last two-year extension, the hope was that Congress would improve the act, working to expand who was covered.
“We just can’t keep pushing it forward two years and getting nothing out of it,” Owens said in May.
Utah News Dispatch, like the Idaho Capital Sun, is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and X.
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