They say the Utah Republican has yet to join an effort to expand a compensation program for individuals suffering from various cancers as a result of their exposure to radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear weapons tests.

Hatch said he supports the concept but realizes expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) could be tough to get through Congress.

“What everybody is afraid of is getting so there's a never-ending entitlement here, and I think you have to show some pretty good reasons why we should expand RECA. And I'm not saying we shouldn't, but we've got to be able to make the case.”

Currently there are 22 counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona where residents qualify for compensation as Downwinders, entitling them to a $50,000 payment should they become ill with certain cancers.

To date, the Justice Department, which administers the RECA program, has paid out $464 million to 9,285 Downwinders.

But the Downwinders are seeking to expand the act to include all of Utah, Idaho, Montana and Mohave County, Ariz., and want Hatch, who authored the original RECA legislation, to join the fight.

“I think you have to have equal compensation for equal exposure,” said J. Preston Truman, president of the group Downwinders. “[The fallout] wasn't only in St. George. It got all over. And it's time we address that this is what we did to our own people and, if we don't, we're likely to do it again.”

Montana Sen. Conrad Burns and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo have both introduced legislation to expand RECA to cover sickened residents in their states. They have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the legislation, but none has been scheduled.

“I'd love to be able to know exactly who should be covered that isn't covered,” Hatch said. “I am looking at it, but I don't know if I can make the case.”

A National Academies of Science (NAS) report released in April stated that only covering certain counties is an arbitrary criteria for determining compensation. Instead, the NAS report recommended a series of medical criteria that would need to be met.

But the report stated that, if the recommended criteria were adopted, very few RECA claims would be approved in the future.

Truman said that those who were exposed are at least entitled to a hearing in Congress.

“It may be in the end that nothing can be done," he said, "but it is imperative that at least some effort is made to dish out justice, not 'just us.' ”