Passed the House on June 5, 1990(agreed voice vote)
Passed the Senate on August 1, 1990(passed voice vote) with amendment
House agreed to Senate amendment on September 27, 1990(agreed voice vote)
Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on October 15, 1990
Areas covered by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program
The United States Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) is a federal statute implemented in 1990, set to expire in July 2024, providing for the monetary compensation of people, including atomic veterans, who contracted cancer and a number of other specified diseases as a direct result of their exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing undertaken by the United States during the Cold War as residents, or their exposure to radon gas and other radioactive isotopes while undertaking uranium mining, milling or the transportation of ore.
$75,000 for workers participating in atmospheric nuclear weapons tests
$100,000 for uranium miners, millers, and ore transporters
In all cases there are additional requirements which must be satisfied (proof of exposure, establishment of duration of employment, establishment of certain medical conditions, etc.).
In 2022, the law was to expire, and President Joe Biden extended the filing deadline for another two years.
Origins, 1979
Attempts to enact the legislation can be traced back to the late 1970s. In its fifth draft, a Bill entitled Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1979 was sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy[1] of Massachusetts. The Bill intended to make compensation available to persons exposed to fallout from nuclear weapons testing and for living uranium miners (or their survivors) who had worked in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona between 1 January 1947 and 31 December 1961.
The Bill proposed to pay compensation to persons who lived within prescribed areas for at least a year, to persons who "died from, has or has had, leukaemia, thyroid cancer, bone cancer or any other cancer identified by an advisory board on the health effects of radiation and uranium exposure".
Fallout areas listed by the bill included counties in Utah and Nevada:
Utah counties included Millard, Sevier, Beaver, Iron, Washington, Kane, Garfiend, Piute, Wayne, San Juan, Grand, Carbon, Emery, Duchesne, Uintah, San Pete and Juab. Nevada's "affected areas" were listed as the counties of White Pine, Nye, Lander, Lincoln and Eureka. The Bill as drafted, would have also compensated ranchers whose sheep died following nuclear weapons tests "Harry" (13 May 1959) and "Nancy" (24 May 1953).[2]
Ten years later, Wayne Owens (D–UT introduced H.R.2372, which added uranium miners who worked in Wyoming to the list, and extended the eligible date rate for employed miners to between 1947 and 1971.
Implementation, 1990
Twelve years transpired before the bill was finally enacted. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed by Congress on October 5, 1990, and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on October 15, 1990.[3] In the successful bill it was written that Congress "apologizes on behalf of the nation" to individuals who were "involuntarily subjected to increased risk of injury and disease to serve the national security interests of the United States."
In some cases, it proved to be extremely difficult for people to receive their compensation, including cases filed by widows of uranium miners.[4] Because many uranium miners were Native Americans, they did not have standard marriage licenses required to establish a legal connection to the deceased. In 1999, revisions were published in the Federal Register to assist in making award claims. Many mine workers and their families found the paperwork difficult and qualifications narrow and were declined compensation.[5][6][7]
Exclusion
People living in the surrounding area near Trinity (the first nuclear test) site in New Mexico were, unlike the Nevada test site, unaware of the project and not included in the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act support for affected downwinders.[8]
Compensation
The Act provides the following remunerations, as of 2023, unchanged since 1990 despite inflation:
In 2000, amendments were passed which added two new claimant categories like uranium mill and ore workers, both eligible to receive as much money as uranium miners, added additional geographic regions to the "downwinders" provisions, changed some of the recognized illnesses, and lowered the threshold radiation exposure for uranium miners.
In 2002, additional amendments were passed as part of another bill, primarily fixing a number of draftsmanship errors in the previous amendments which had accidentally removed certain geographic areas from the original act and clarified a number of points.[10]
In 2019, H.R.3783 was introduced to extend RECA to 2045, expand downwinder eligibility to include Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Guam, and Colorado, to expand uranium worker eligibility to those who worked after 1971, until 1990, also covering people involved in the cleanup of Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands from 1977-1981, increase the compensation to $150,000 for all claimants, and to allow people exposed to atmospheric testing to receive the same medical benefits as Department of Energy workers, eligible under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
In 2022, the law was to expire, but President Joe Biden extended the filing deadline for another two years until July 2024.[11]
For many years Senator Ben Ray Luján and other members of Congress have attempted to get compensation for those affected by the Trinity test. [12] After the film Oppenheimer brought renewed attention to the test, the United States Senate approved the New Mexico downwinders' inclusion in the RECA amendment. To become law, the bill would also need to be passed by the United States House of Representatives.[13]
Status of claims
It was initially expected that hundreds of compensation claims would be paid under the Act,[14] a figure which later proved to be a gross underestimate.
As of 15 July 2012, 25,804 claims under the act had been approved (with 9,869 denied), expending a total of $1,707,998,044.[15]
As of 19 November 2013, 43,068 claims were filed, 11,619 claims were denied, 748 claims were pending and 30,701 were awarded. These numbers did not include the Marshall Islands.[16]
As of 2 March 2015, over $2 billion in total compensation had been paid to 32,000 successful claimants under the Act.[17]
As of 16 March 2016, successful claims had been awarded to 19,555 downwinders, 3,963 onsite participants, 6,214 uranium miners, 1,673 uranium millers and 328 ore transporters.[18]
As of 20 April 2018, 34,372 claims in total had been approved with total compensation paid at $2,243,205,380.[19]
As of 12 January 2023, 40,274 claims have been approved with total compensation paid at $2,598,374,306. Successful claims include: 25,663 downwinders, 5,388 onsite participants, 6,896 uranium miners, 1,921 uranium millers and 406 ore transporters.[20]
As of 15 July 2024, 41,900 claims have been approved with total compensation paid at $2,693,750,307. Successful claims include: 26,863 downwinders, 5,665 onsite participants, 6,996 uranium miners, 1,956 uranium millers and 420 ore transporters.[21]
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S. Truman signed the McMahon/Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946, transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective on January 1, 1947. This shift gave the members of the AEC complete control of the plants, laboratories, equipment, and personnel assembled during the war to produce the atomic bomb.
The Nevada National Security Sites, popularized as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, about 65 mi (105 km) northwest of the city of Las Vegas.
A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, or a reactor core melt. The prime example of a "major nuclear accident" is one in which a reactor core is damaged and significant amounts of radioactive isotopes are released, such as in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Before and during the Cold War, it conducted 1,054 nuclear tests, and tested many long-range nuclear weapons delivery systems.
Downwinders were individuals and communities in the intermountain West between the Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges primarily in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah but also in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho who were exposed to radioactive contamination or nuclear fallout from atmospheric or underground nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents.
The Pacific Proving Grounds was the name given by the United States government to a number of sites in the Marshall Islands and a few other sites in the Pacific Ocean at which it conducted nuclear testing between 1946 and 1962. The U.S. tested a nuclear weapon on Bikini Atoll on June 30, 1946. This was followed by Baker on July 24, 1946.
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of world production. Other countries producing more than 1,000 tons per year included Namibia, Niger, Russia, Uzbekistan, the United States, and China. Nearly all of the world's mined uranium is used to power nuclear power plants. Historically uranium was also used in applications such as uranium glass or ferrouranium but those applications have declined due to the radioactivity of uranium and are nowadays mostly supplied with a plentiful cheap supply of depleted uranium which is also used in uranium ammunition. In addition to being cheaper, depleted uranium is also less radioactive due to a lower content of short-lived 234 U and 235 U than natural uranium.
Radium and radon are important contributors to environmental radioactivity. Radon occurs naturally as a result of decay of radioactive elements in soil and it can accumulate in houses built on areas where such decay occurs. Radon is a major cause of cancer; it is estimated to contribute to ~2% of all cancer related deaths in Europe.
Uranium in the environment is a global health concern, and comes from both natural and man-made sources. Beyond naturally occurring uranium, mining, phosphates in agriculture, weapons manufacturing, and nuclear power are anthropogenic sources of uranium in the environment.
Uranium mining in the United States produced 224,331 pounds (101.8 tonnes) of U3O8 in 2023, 15% of the 2018 production of 1,447,945 pounds (656.8 tonnes) of U3O8. The 2023 production represents 0.4% of the uranium fuel requirements of the US's nuclear power reactors for the year. Production came from five in-situ leaching plants, four in Wyoming (Nichols Ranch ISR Project, Lance Project, Lost Creek Project, and Smith Ranch-Highland Operation) and one in Nebraska (Crowe Butte Operation); and from the White Mesa conventional mill in Utah.
An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during active duty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military service: Participated in an above-ground nuclear test, 1945–1962; or was part of the U.S. military occupation forces in/around Hiroshima/Nagasaki before 1946; or was held as a POW in or near Hiroshima or Nagasaki ."
The Return of Navajo Boy is a documentary film produced by Jeff Spitz and Bennie Klain about the Cly family, Navajo who live on their reservation. Through them, the film explores several longstanding issues among the Navajo and their relations with the United States government and corporations: environmental racism, media and political representation, off-reservation adoption, and denial of reparations for environmental illnesses due to uranium mining in Monument Valley, Utah, which was unregulated for decades. Bill Kennedy served as the film's executive producer; his late father had produced and directed the earlier silent film The Navajo Boy (1950s), which featured the Cly family.
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) was passed by Congress in 2000 and is designed to compensate individuals who worked in nuclear weapons production and as a result of occupational exposures contracted certain illnesses. EEOICPA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 30, 2000.
The relationship between Uranium mining and the Navajo people began in 1944 in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.
Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy is a 1989 book by Philip L. Fradkin which was republished in a second edition in 2004. The book is about the radiation exposure of people and their livestock living downwind from the nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s. The case of Irene Allen et al. vs. the United States is used as a framework for the narrative. The court case "resulted in an award of $2.66 million in damages to eight persons with leukemia, one with thyroid cancer, and another with breast cancer".
The uranium mining debate covers the political and environmental controversies of uranium mining for use in either nuclear power or nuclear weapons.
The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project was created by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to monitor the cleanup of uranium mill tailings, a by-product of the uranium concentration process that poses risks to the public health and environment. The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act passed by Congress in 1978 gave the DOE the authority to regulate tailings disposal sites and shifted disposal practices to more engineered designs.
Nuclear ethics is a cross-disciplinary field of academic and policy-relevant study in which the problems associated with nuclear warfare, nuclear deterrence, nuclear arms control, nuclear disarmament, or nuclear energy are examined through one or more ethical or moral theories or frameworks.
Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting upon the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.
The Compensation scheme for radiation-linked diseases is a no-fault workers compensation scheme set-up by agreement between the nuclear site license holders and their workers trades unions. It was established in November 1982 by British Nuclear Fuels Limited and its trade unions following legal actions brought against the company by nuclear industry workers in the late 1970s. At the time of its establishment, BNFL and its trade unions agreed that the causation of cancer by radiation was sufficiently well understood that "it should be possible to construct a scheme which would evaluate the probability that a diagnosed cancer may have been caused by radiation exposure at work." Initially the scheme only accepted claims in which a worker had died from a radiation-linked disease. In 1987 this was expanded to allow morbidity claims. The list of participating member employers and trade unions has grown through the 1990s and 2000s. As of July 2021, 1710 cases had been received and considered since the Scheme began. 163 of those resulted in successful claims. Compensation payments exceeding £8.90 million have been paid to claimants.
↑ Johnston, Barbara Rose (2007). Half-Lives and Half-Truths: Confronting the Radioactive Legacies of the Cold War. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research. ISBN978-1-930618-82-4.
↑ Dawson, Susan E.; Madsen, Gary, E. (2007). "5". In Johnston, Barbara Rose (ed.). Uranium Mine Workers, Atomic Downwinders, and the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA): The Nuclear Legacy. Santa Fe, NM. ISBN978-1-930618-82-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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