DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Navajo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Navajo</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/uranium" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uranium</span></a> miners, people <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/downwind" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>downwind</span></a> of atom bomb tests demand justice as Congress lets aid program lapse </p><p>by Keetra Bippus / Cronkite News<br>July 5, 2024 </p><p>WASHINGTON – "A federal program to compensate people exposed to fallout from U.S. nuclear testing expired June 10.</p><p>"The <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Radiation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Radiation</span></a> 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.</p><p>“'Why do we have to beg to pass <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RECA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RECA</span></a>?' said <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MaggieBilliman" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MaggieBilliman</span></a>, whose father, a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NavajoCodeTalker" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NavajoCodeTalker</span></a> during World War II, died of stomach cancer she attributes to exposure to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/fallout" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fallout</span></a> that affected their hometown in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Arizona" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Arizona</span></a>. 'You don’t put a price tag on human life.'</p><p>"Starting with the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ManhattanProject" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ManhattanProject</span></a>’s Trinity test on July 16, 1945, weeks before bombs destroyed <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Hiroshima" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hiroshima</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Nagasaki" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Nagasaki</span></a>, the U.S. government conducted 94 tests that produced radioactive mushroom clouds in remote areas of the West. Most were over <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Nevada" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Nevada</span></a>. One was over <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NewMexico" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewMexico</span></a>.</p><p>"People <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/downwind" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>downwind</span></a> – including many in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Arizona" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Arizona</span></a> – were exposed to dangerous <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/fallout" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fallout</span></a>, typically without warning.</p><p>"The Billimans’ hometown, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SawmillArizona" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SawmillArizona</span></a>, on <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NavajoLand" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NavajoLand</span></a>, is part of the large affected area where Congress made residents eligible for compensation.</p><p>"<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Radioactive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Radioactive</span></a> particles fell throughout Arizona, according to research from Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. The state’s population grew from about half a million just before World War II to over 1.3 million in the early 1960s.</p><p>"Congress adopted RECA in 1992 to address claims from downwinders and uranium miners.</p><p>"The program offers an apology, and lump sum compensation ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 to those who developed certain illnesses linked with radiation exposure, and who either lived in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FalloutZones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FalloutZones</span></a> or worked at <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UraniumMines" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UraniumMines</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UraniumMills" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UraniumMills</span></a>.</p><p>"The law came in response to lawsuits from uranium workers who accused the government of failing to warn them about radiation hazards.</p><p>From 1944 to 1986, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore was extracted from Navajo lands. The Manhattan Project itself, led by physicist <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RobertOppenheimer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RobertOppenheimer</span></a>, was disbanded in 1947, two years after Japan surrendered to end World War II.</p><p>"An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Navajo people worked in the mines. They and their families lived nearby.</p><p>“'The closer you live to mine waste, the higher your risk of chronic <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/metabolic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>metabolic</span></a> disease,' said Chris Shuey, director of the Uranium Impact Assessment Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. 'People who live in these communities next to these wastes, they’re exposed through all of the pathways: air, water, land.'</p><p>"Claims from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Colorado" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Colorado</span></a> account for $1.8 billion of the payouts under RECA.</p><p>"Most of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NavajoNation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NavajoNation</span></a> was covered due to potential fallout. About one in seven approved claims – 5,480 through the end of 2023 – have come from <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NativeAmericans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NativeAmericans</span></a>, 86% of them Navajo, totalling $372.6 million.</p><p>"The Environmental Protection Agency counts 523 abandoned uranium mines on or near the Navajo reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, an area bigger than Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.</p><p>"The Senate voted 69-31 in March to extend the RECA filing period for five more years, with 46 Democrats and 20 Republicans in favor, along with Sen. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/KrystenSinema" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>KrystenSinema</span></a> of Arizona and two other independents. Sen. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MarkKelly" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MarkKelly</span></a>, D-Ariz., also supported the bill.</p><p>The bill has stalled in the House, with no explanation from Speaker Mike Johnson or Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both Republicans from Louisiana. </p><p>"Their aides did not respond to multiple requests for comment."</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2024/07/05/navajo-uranium-miners-people-downwind-atom-bomb-tests-demand-justice/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2024/07</span><span class="invisible">/05/navajo-uranium-miners-people-downwind-atom-bomb-tests-demand-justice/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Downwinders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Downwinders</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoNukes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NoNukes</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NoWar</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BanTheBomb" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BanTheBomb</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoUraniumMining" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NoUraniumMining</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NuclearWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NuclearWar</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NuclearWeapons" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NuclearWeapons</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ICANN" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ICANN</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Oppenheimer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Oppenheimer</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HaulNo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HaulNo</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/InformedConsent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>InformedConsent</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalRacism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnvironmentalRacism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a></p>