Uranium pursued in Utah while RECA is still on pause
Last week, Utah leaders announced plans to partner with a California-based company to bring uranium-related infrastructure to the Wasatch Front. The proposed facility in Bluffdale would manufacture equipment used to enrich uranium—a step toward processing nuclear fuel right here in our communities. Officials say the project would help position Utah as a “national energy hub.”
But while state leaders fast-track nuclear deals to serve industry interests, they continue to ignore the suffering of Utahns already harmed by nuclear fallout. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA)—which provided support for people sickened by Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing—expired in 2024 and has yet to be renewed. Thousands of downwinders in Utah and beyond continue to face cancer, chronic illness, and devastating loss, with no recourse or recognition.
Last year, Utah’s own Reps, Senators Romney and Lee compounded this failure by introducing a weakened alternative that offers no expansion of protections, despite the documented health consequences faced by communities exposed to radioactive fallout. Around 60,000 Utahns were impacted from nuclear testing in neighboring Nevada.
UPHE is one of many organizations pushing Congress to do right by the government’s victims of nuclear weapons testing. We are urging them to act NOW to reauthorize and expand RECA.
Originally passed in 1990, RECA offered limited support to victims in only a handful of counties, despite evidence that radiation exposure reached all the way to Salt Lake, Provo, and Ogden. Since RECA expired, countless Utah families have waited in vain—while federal spending on new nuclear weapons balloons toward $756 billion.
If built, the Camp Williams facility would make Utah home to nearly every step of the uranium cycle—from mining and milling to potential enrichment—placing our residents in the path of harmful industrial activity yet again.
We call on Utah’s congressional delegation—Reps. Owens, Curtis, Maloy, and Moore—to stop putting industry profits ahead of public health. Support RECA. Support Utahns.
Previous UPHE call to action on RECA: