Reactions to nuclear report are mixed
Utah's senators expressed support for expanding the coverage to make the whole country eligible, although one warned against reducing present coverage. A member of the House was more concerned about the report's effects.
Downwinders were split on the report, while the chairman of the committee that drafted the study insisted that science was its basis.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, who authored the 1990 law awarding compensation, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, welcomed the addition of scientific criteria to use in deciding how to award compensation.
He said the report is significant for Utah's downwinders and those who worked in the weapons-based uranium industry, including miners, millers and others.
"It resolves unanswered questions about whether we got it right when we developed the list of compensable illnesses," Hatch added. The report concluded that the list should not be added to.
"And it holds forth the possibility that program expansions could be considered by Congress."
Hatch was adamant about one point, that Utahns now eligible should not be cut off from compensation. His office noted that he "vehemently rejected" any reduction in current coverage.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said he agrees with the report's recommendations for expanding RECA coverage to include uranium millers and transporters.
"I'm also pleased with the findings to expand the geographic limits included in the RECA determinations," he said in a note e-mailed to the Deseret Morning News. "This report is a useful tool as Congress determines the best way to proceed with the program."
However, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, worries that the recommendations may not adequately address the health problems of Utah downwinders.
The report acknowledges that only a "very small number" of monitoring stations around the country recorded fallout during the period of testing in the 1950s and '60s, according to a Matheson press release. "Other than monitoring at the Nevada Test Site and neighboring sites, only 95 monitoring stations were in operation across the entire country" at the time, he said. "That makes any risk calculation a difficult task at best."
The congressman pointed out that a recently released report by the National Cancer Institute says 530 cancers were caused among the residents of the Marshall Islands in the mid-Pacific Ocean, where 66 nuclear bombs were detonated from 1946 to 1958.
He praised the recommendation that the Centers for Disease Control and National Cancer Institute should complete dose estimates for all significant radioactive isotopes in fallout.
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