EDS: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how much longer people could apply under a pending bill. The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.
- Slug: BC-CNS-RECA Expired. 1,545 words.
- Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).
By Keetra Bippus
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – A federal program to compensate people exposed to fallout from U.S. nuclear testing expired June 10.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has paid out $2.6 billion to over 41,000 people since 1992. In March, the U.S. Justice Department projected that another 1,070 claims would be approved by the end of September.
“Why do we have to beg to pass RECA?” said Maggie Billiman, whose father, a Navajo Code Talker during World War II, died of stomach cancer she attributes to exposure to fallout that affected their hometown in Arizona. “You don’t put a price tag on human life.”
Starting with the Manhattan Project’s Trinity test on July 16, 1945, weeks before bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. government conducted 94 tests that produced radioactive mushroom clouds in remote areas of the West. Most were over Nevada. One was over New Mexico.
Continue reading “Navajo uranium miners, people downwind of atom bomb tests demand justice as Congress lets aid program lapse”
