The clock is ticking for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which provides health screenings and compensation for people sickened by radiation from U.S. nuclear weapons production. RECA is set to expire on June 7; this would mean not only an end to life-saving health screenings and compensation, but also to the hopes of thousands of downwinders and uranium industry workers who have been unfairly excluded from the program for decades.
Last year, a wave of public attention and new findings helped propel RECA forward: “Oppenheimer” brought new attention to the Trinity Test; investigative journalism found that people in the St. Louis, Missouri, region had been exposed to dangerous Manhattan Project nuclear waste for decades; and a new Princeton study showed that fallout went further than we ever realized. Advocates seized on this opportunity and came the…
Read the full article originally published at blog.ucsusa.org.