Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act

SAFETY FOR AMERICANS FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING ACT -- (House of Representatives - March 09, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, today I announce the introduction of legislation called the Safety for Americans From Nuclear Weapons Testing Act. Let me describe the history and the events that have led me to the introduction of this legislation.

Our country began open-air testing of nuclear weapons in 1951. Between 1951 and 1992, over 1,000 weapons tests took place, over 100 above ground and over 800 below ground as well.

Now, what is interesting about this is the government told the citizens of this country that the testing was safe. And I, like a lot of people in Utah, have roots in southern Utah, and my relatives live in southern Utah. They said it was safe too.

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I remember my dad telling me how people would wake up and watch the sky light up in the morning from the tests.
People in southern Utah take a back seat to no one when it comes to their patriotism and their support of a strong national defense. What is unfortunate in this story is that the government lied. They lied to the people in southern Utah.
They lied to anyone who was down wind of the fallout from the nuclear testing. In fact, the government knew they were putting people at risk. They kept that information quiet. It was not until the early 1980s that documents in the Pentagon were declassified that showed that in fact the government only conducted the testing when the wind blew the fallout in the least populated direction, which happened to be southern Utah.

Now, a lot of people say, Wait a minute. We used to have those above-ground tests, but now they are below ground.

This is an underground test right here. This was in 1970. This was an underground test. The dust and debris went 10,000 feet into the atmosphere. So the notion that underground testing is in and of itself safe, I think a picture is worth more than a thousand words.

Now, what happened in Utah is rates of cancer are much higher than elsewhere in southern Utah. Ultimately, the government admitted culpability when Congress passed something called the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which provided monetary compensation to individuals who happened to be living in certain counties that received high amounts of fallout from nuclear testing. Yes, the government ultimately did admit its culpability.

Why am I talking about introducing this legislation today? Because Congress in the past year has taken some actions that are taking us down the path to renewal of nuclear testing of the Nevada test site. Since 1992 there has been a moratorium on testing. Congress voted in the last year to remove what is called the Spratt First Amendment which prevented development of new nuclear weapons. Congress also in its appropriations process voted to move ahead in funding of the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. And development of a new generation of nuclear weapons to me means we are going down the path to additional nuclear testing. That is why I have introduced this bill.

Now, you can say that this bill is important just because of its impact in the West and particularly in Utah, but this is not just a Western issue. This is a national issue.

It turns out when we studied one of the significant isotopes from previous testing, Iodine 131, and showed the concentrations in each county; every county in the lower 48 States had concentrations of Iodine 131. Interestingly enough, if you look at this map, you will notice you have some counties up here in New York and Vermont that had higher concentrations than some counties in southern Utah. This once again from the National Cancer Institute demonstrates that fallout from nuclear testing is a national issue. It should be an issue of national concern.

That is why I have introduced today the Safety for Americans From Nuclear Weapons Testing Act. Let me describe what the act does. First of all, it would require before any testing happens that the Federal Government conduct a full national environmental policy act review to assess health, safety and environmental impacts prior to conducting nuclear weapons testing. It requires congressional authorization prior to the possible resumption of nuclear weapons testing as well. If those steps are completed, it would require 1 week's public notice prior to any test, and it is going to require much more extensive monitoring for potential releases of radiation beyond the Nevada test site. It would require the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to monitor radiation levels. But it is not just going to be the government that will be doing the monitoring because the legislation also provides for a grant program for universities, particularly across all the hot zones demonstrated by where Iodine 131 had gone, so we will have independent third-party monitoring to look for radiation releases as well throughout the country.

The legislation says that if any radiation travels beyond the Nevada test site, then the U.S. must cease further nuclear weapons testing until Congress would vote to reauthorize such testing.

The legislation creates the National Center for the Study of Radiation and Human Health. It would be a regional consortium of universities that will study the health effect of radiation exposure, radiation-linked illnesses, and other related research illness. Finally, the legislation requires the National Cancer Institute to provide human dose estimates for Americans for all radionuclides and all human organs produced by previous weapons tests. And a report would be provided to Congress and the public within 3 years. In fact, only one isotope has been studied by the National Cancer Institute.

It is an important bill for all this country. I encourage my colleagues to join me for providing safety for Americans from nuclear weapons testing.

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