SALT LAKE CITY — More than 40 Utah lawmakers are asking top leaders in Congress to reboot a program providing compensation to people exposed to radiation following nuclear weapons tests last century, after the program expired last year.
Utah was one of the states most heavily impacted by radiation fallout from midcentury tests in Nevada. The bipartisan group of lawmakers joined with Gov. Spencer Cox and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in calling for the reauthorization of the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, which provides compensation to so-called downwinders who lived in parts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona.
“Our state Legislature has a long history of nearly unanimous, bipartisan support for related legislation, as shown in previous resolutions passed by this body,” the 41 Utah lawmakers wrote. “Our state’s tragic history of past uranium mining and downwind exposure from nuclear tests has compelled us to fight for Utahns who have been harmed, as well as to support those in other parts of the country who have similarly suffered.”…