It’s been two months now since Congress let the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expire, leaving people in the West who were exposed to fallout from nuclear weapons testing with no financial recourse. Now, data from the U.S.
Department of Justice’s Civil Division shows there are more than 1,000 pending claims for compensation as of the end of July. That’s a massive increase compared to this time last year, when there were just 236 pending claims. It’s unclear what’s driving the surge — the Union for Concerned Scientists said in a news release that the increased media attention around the compensation act in the days leading up to the act’s expiration on June 10 could have raised public awareness.
Or, it could be that applicants rushed to submit their claims ahead of the deadline, resulting in a backlog. Whatever the reason, payouts from the act are still in demand. “The effects are lingering, it’s not over.
It’s not something from our past, this is very much our present and could very well be our future. Some of those diseases can take decades to show up, so nobody connects the dots that that’s what happened,” said Mary Dickson, a Salt Lake City downwinder and cancer survivor who for years advocated for Congress to expand the act. Dickson spoke on Thursday during a screening for the film “Silent Fallout,” from the Japanese director Hideaki Ito.
The film chronicles the global impact of U.S. nuclear weapons testing during the cold war, from Britis.