But the applications for compensation are declining from residents in southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona claiming the tests caused their cancers and other diseases, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Friday. So are the payouts, says the GAO.
About $248 million more will be needed to pay the approved claimants for the life of the program, which ends in 2022, the GAO said. The number of claims the Justice Department predicts to receive will decline steadily from about 1,200 a year in 2007 to fewer than 100 by 2022.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) has so far paid out more than $1 billion to downwinders, uranium workers and test site employees.
A shrinking number of claims will decrease future funding needs for the Justice Department's administration of the program, according to the report.
Another reason for declining funding needs is a change in the law requiring the Labor Department to pay the claims of uranium miners, millers and ore haulers.
Those people are entitled under the law to larger payments than downwinders.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who represents nearly all of the areas in Utah enrolled in the program, said it is "all well and good" that RECA is functioning "adequately."
But he says the program still may need to be expanded. He joined other lawmakers signing a letter in May asking for the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on allowing all of Utah and other parts of the West to get coverage under the act.
"The more urgent issues are should RECA eligibility be expanded and have we learned the lesson about why we should never again go down the path of nuclear weapons testing," Matheson said in response to the GAO report. "Those are my concerns, and they remain my focus."
About 24,000 people have claimed money under the law, the report says, and about 18,000 have been approved for payment.
The report doesn't detail how many are from Utah.
tburr@sltrib.com
Downwinder history
About 100 open-air nuclear tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site by the U.S. government from 1951-1962, exposing thousands of residents in Nevada, southern Utah and northern Arizona to fallout from the tests. The Limited Test Ban Treaty drove testing underground in 1962. Those tests ceased in 1992 when the United States entered into a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing which continues to the present.
Source: Globalsecurity.org
*$1.2 billion total
* $561 million to downwinders
* $455 million to uranium miners
* $100 million to uranium millers
* $80 million to Nevada Test Site participants
Source: Department of Justice, Civil Division
