Burns, Baucus back nuclear fallout victims in Montana

[struggle4progress]

By RICHARD ECKE
Tribune Staff Writer

Montana victims of nuclear weapons testing from a half-century ago "deserve both an apology and compensation from the U.S. government," U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Thursday.

Burns' statement coincided with the release of a nearly 400-page report by the National Academy of Sciences. The report recommended that the government open the door to hearing cancer claims from people in all states who think they were affected by nuclear fallout from 1950s weapons tests in Nevada. <snip>

The program already has paid more than $700,000 to 11,000 radiation victims and their families. In certain counties in Utah, Arizona and Nevada, fallout victims need not prove fallout caused their cancers. <snip>

"According to the study, Montanans at the time were exposed to the highest dosages of radiation of any state in the country as a result of this nuclear testing — even higher than folks in Nevada," Burns said. "Our folks have been hit the hardest from this, and their pain and suffering has been completely ignored." <snip>

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050430/NEWS01/504300318/1002

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Wow---I never heard about this.

[jpak]

2. It's part of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act

http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/about.htm

http://www.washingtonwatchdog.org/documents/cfr/title28/part79.html

It covers downwinders, uranium miners, uranium millers, uranium transporters and workers at uranium enrichment and other processing facilities.

14000 clams paid to date and rising by several thousand more a year...

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-481