Today the facts about radiation-caused cancers and genetic maladies are widely known, and still the federal government is considering resuming nuclear testing. And, while our representatives in the U.S. House have voted against funding the research that is a likely precursor to more testing, Sen. Bob Bennett, who should be Utah's best line of defense, seems unwilling to stand against it.

Bennett apparently can't make up his mind whose side he is on: his constituents' or that of his political leader, President Bush, who is pressuring Bennett to vote for the research.

Bennett says he does "not support efforts to disarm this country, but . . . cannot sanction activities which could endanger its citizens." This transparent waffling is indefensible, considering Utah's history as one of the hardest-hit victims of the original round of weapons testing in Nevada. Thousands of Utah "downwinders" and their survivors have been granted "compassionate payments" because they were "involuntarily subjected to increased risk of injury and disease to serve the national security interests of the United States."

Utahns are rightly horrified that they might be subjected to such risks again.

Bennett is in a unique position to protect them. His upcoming vote on a Senate appropriations subcommittee is key to halting plans to modify existing bombs into "bunker buster" bombs and low-yield "mini-nukes." Voting last year went strictly along party lines: seven Republican votes, including Bennett's, to retain funding and six Democrats voting to cut the funds.

Bennett says he believes the administration has no plans to resume testing, but nobody thinks the politically savvy senator is that naive. After all, the spending plan includes a provision to get the Nevada Test Site ready to resume underground bomb tests within 18 months "if needed."

Bennett has introduced legislation that would require congressional approval, environmental impact studies and health and safety reviews before testing could be resumed. But he rejects the safest and simplest solution: Eliminate funding for research that will likely lead to a resumption of testing.

Refusing to fund new nuclear weapons would not "disarm" the country. If anything, creating a tactical means to wage nuclear war only increases its likelihood and encourages other countries to develop their own nuclear weapons, putting the world more at risk.

Utahns are still living with - and dying from - the legacy of nuclear testing in Nevada. It is unconscionable that Bennett, risking his own legacy, would allow even the first step toward replaying Utah's worst nightmare.