While we push for radiation victim protections, others want to resume the nuclear testing that did that damage 

Photo: Nuclear weapons test in Nevada in 1957. Courtesy of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

The legislature’s inaction which allowed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to lapse is unconscionable. What is even more unbelievable, though, is that some groups are pushing to continue the very nuclear testing that caused damage to so many. 

UPHE’s own Dr. Brian Moench self-identifies as a downwinder. He and four of his seven siblings have been diagnosed with cancer that he attributes to nuclear testing. He wrote an op-ed recently on the fallout of nuclear testing on Utahns and his own family. 

The Salt Lake Tribune quotes Dr. Moench on plans to resume testing, “That is literally Dr. Strangelove-level insanity on multiple levels. If they were to resume underground nuclear testing in Nevada, it would expose Utah and much of the country to a resumption of radionuclides. Underground testing almost invariably still releases radioactivity into the atmosphere.”

The only country who has ever detonated nuclear bombs over American citizens is our own. The Nevada Test Site (NTS), located 65 miles north of Las Vegas, was a major nuclear weapons testing location in the United States, where both atmospheric and underground tests were conducted from 1951 to 1992. 

This reckless plan is not only a direct threat to public health but also a dangerous step backward that risks exposing Utah and surrounding states to radioactive contamination once again. Nuclear testing in Nevada previously led to catastrophic health consequences for thousands of “downwinders” in Utah—people who were exposed to radiation and later developed serious illnesses, including cancer. It is unacceptable to even consider subjecting another generation to these horrors.

To push for a continuation and expansion of RECA: 

CALL HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (202-225-2777) and demand he put the bill for a vote! It passed the Senate and is being held up in the House. 

Then CALL UTAH’S HOUSE REPS and encourage them to vote yes!!! 

Blake Moore: (202) 225-0453

Celeste Maloy (202) 225-9730

John Curtis (202) 225-7751

Clarence “Burgess” Owens (202) 225-3011

“Nuclear testing is just one of Project 2025′s policy recommendations. The 900-page plan’s controversial proposals include eliminating the Head Start program that funds early childhood education for low-income families, ramping up oil drilling, shutting down research on climate change, and installing more political appointees at all levels of government whose primary loyalty would be to the president rather than the Constitution,” The Salt Lake Tribune article writes. 

Find the full Salt Lake Tribune article here. 

Dr. Moench was also quoted in coverage on this issue by The Pinnacle Gazette.