Passed on October 15, 1990, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) established lump sum compensation for individuals who contracted specified diseases related to atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in 3 defined populations: uranium miners, millers, and ore transporters; “onsite participants” who worked at the military testing sites; and certain individuals who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site, know as downwinders. Utah has so many downwinders that the University of Utah, researchers, writers, filmmakers, and activists (including HEAL Utah) have been trying to collect their stories. It is critical that we remember this recent history, and honor those impacted by uranium mining and above ground nuclear testing.

The United States began mining and processing uranium throughout the southwest in order to create nuclear weapons. On July 16, 1945, the US exploded the world’s first nuclear weapon in southern New Mexico. The Trinity test was the first of over 100 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted by the US over the next few decades.  Most of those tests took place in southern Nevada, adjacent to a number of communities in southeastern Utah, like St. George. The radioactive dust and ash from the explosions were released into the atmosphere and traveled across the nation as nuclear fallout. Unfortunately, although not all counties in Utah are covered by the current RECA program, Utah was in the direct path of that fallout due to wind patterns that carried radioactive contaminants in the atmosphere. 

Countless families throughout the state were negatively affected, whether immediately by acute symptoms of radiation sickness like nausea, headaches, and a lost sense of smell, or through long term effects like the development of thyroid cancer or birth defects.  

The stories of these communities accumulated over the years since the Trinity test, demonstrated a systematic pattern of cancer clusters and other radiation-related illnesses in former military and downwind communities.