The Tragic History Of Nuclear Downwinders

Are you a "downwinder?" If you lived in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming between 1942 and 1971, then at some point you were likely exposed to large amounts of nuclear fallout and/or radioactive contamination when the United States openly tested nuclear weapons or allowed the uranium industry to run unchecked. But the term "downwinder" actually originates from the initial testing at the Nevada Test Site just north of Las Vegas during the 1950s and 1960s, when winds carried nuclear fallout from the experimental explosion of nuclear bombs hundreds of miles away. Thousands were affected, and many wound up with cancer.

Some 70 years later, Americans are dealing with a plethora of illnesses due to the testing of nuclear bombs. The government recognizes that those exposed for at least two years between January 21, 1951 and October 31, 1958, and also between June 30 and July 31, 1962, indeed deserve some sort of compensation, $50,000, if their cancer appears on a specific list and if they can provide needed documentation to prove their case. The trouble is that during the nuclear tests, the government failed to track any data among those who might be exposed, those who were exposed, and even the resulting cases of cancer they developed. How in the world did this happen? Read on for the tragic history of nuclear downwinders.

According to a 1957 report, population density and other factors were certainly considered when the Nevada Test Site was established. The site "most nearly satisfied" the government as to the safety of the testing. At the time, no explosions were planned "until a determination has been made that its firing will be acceptable under established criteria for offsite radioactive fallout." With such criteria in mind, plans were made to detonate that first nuclear bomb, "Able," in a dry lake bed. Around 100 more would follow in the coming years.

As the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission carried out its testing, the public was assured that the bombs were safe. Brochures claimed the "path of fall-out ... does not constitute a serious hazard to any living thing outside the test site." Today, however, we know that "nearly 150 million curies of radioactive material" would enter the atmosphere due to the bomb testing, roughly 20 times the radiation released in the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986. Radiation would eventually taint grass consumed by livestock and vegetables grown in the dirt. And there was absolutely no indication that at least 11,000 people, but perhaps as many as 145,000 people, would eventually die from the fallout.

You did not have to be close to the Nevada Test Site to be affected by the nuclear blasts there. A map on Downwinders confirms that people in certain counties in eastern Nevada, southern Utah, and northern Arizona were affected. Jay Truman, who made a "disturbing documentary" on behalf of the downwinders (including himself) submits that nearly every household in St. George, Utah (pictured) had someone who eventually died from cancer. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency explains that nuclear weapon detonations can propel radioactive particles upwards of 50 miles into our atmosphere. Those particles that can circulate in the atmosphere "for years" before returning to the ground as fallout, given certain wind and weather patterns.

The Centers for Disease Control says that because fallout remained in the atmosphere, pretty much every American who was alive in 1951 was exposed to radiation. Where you were at the time is critical, since those closest to the Nevada Test Site received the most exposure. But wait: the 1957 report from the Office of Test Information maintained that the first 45 bombs ranged "from less than one kiloton (equal to 1,000 tons of TNT) to considerably less than 100 kilotons." If that isn't confusing enough, consider "Dirty Harry," the bomb set off in 1953 that unexpectedly yielded 20 kilotons above recommended levels. Strong winds carried Harry's fallout straight over to St. George and beyond.

According to Twilight Health, some 125,000 people worked at the Nevada Test Site during the Cold War era. They were closest to the blasts, and few knew much about what they were witnessing. Hank Bolden, for instance, was just a 17-year-old soldier when he was ordered to the Nevada Test Site in 1955, sent to an area about 3 miles from a blast which he observed without any protective gear. Although he was told to cover his eyes, Bolden remembered that he could see the bones in his hand from the brightness of the blast. He was also sworn to secrecy and later developed cancer.

Like Bolden, Russell Fjeldsted also observed an explosion in while standing in a trench with others when a bomb was detonated some 5,000 feet distant in 1957. The group bent over and covered their eyes, looking up about 15 seconds later to observe a mushroom cloud. Afterwards, Fjeldsted and the others showered and were told to dispose of their clothing — but not all of them did. Later, he said, milk produced near the blast site was said to contain strontium-90. He also later developed prostate cancer. The National Cancer Benefits Center now helps workers like Bolden and Fjeldsted file compensation claims.

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice says that numerous Native Americans have filed for compensation due to the Nevada Test Site. Ian Zabarte, who speaks for the Shoshone Nation living on some 40,000 square miles between Las Vegas and the Snake River in Idaho, claims the government violated the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley by creating the site on tribal land without the Shoshone tribe's "consent or knowledge" and thereby poisoning the trees, plants, and animals used by his people to survive. Whether the tribe was notified in advance remains unclear.

The real trouble, according to Nuclear Princeton, is that the Department of Energy has failed to acknowledge the Natives' generally different lifestyles and diets in assessing the health issues of all who were exposed via "dose reconstructions," a way of estimating how much people were exposed to radiation. Worst of all are the numbers given for those Natives filing for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Navajo Phil Harrison, who assists victims of contamination, says he was told that of all of the claims paid as of 2020, only 2% came from his own tribe's downwinders. That, he said, "means that we're being denied."

It took two years to begin processing claims for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Of course, claimants were required to provide documentation of their illnesses and also prove that they lived in the area affected by the Nevada Test Site. Today, according to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, that area would include five counties in Arizona, six counties in Nevada, and 10 counties in Utah. Downwinders is one of a few sites that offers an online claim form, but there is obviously more to the application than that.

Another issue with the RECA may have been that news of the compensation was slow to spread. After the expansion of "downwinder eligibility" in 2000 (when the number of affected counties was expanded), the number of claims did not really peak until 2001. But the number of claims has declined in subsequent years, possibly due to the average claim-processing time in 2006 being 339 days. As of August 2021, the total claims filed was 51,928 — and 13,199 of those had been denied, with 436 others pending. And while there is a list of the types of cancer covered, there seems to be no explanation as to how and why these very specific illnesses (and the conditions under which they occurred) were chosen in the original RECA in 1990.

It is notable that since 1990, the U.S. government has spent some $1.2 trillion on building and storing nuclear weapons, according to author Stephen Schwartz. Compared to the $2.4 billion that has been spent compensating 38,293 downwinders as of August 2021, that seems like an outlandish amount of money. And when the Senate voted unanimously in 2011 to proclaim each January 27 "a national day of remembrance" for downwinders, it just seemed like adding more insult to injury. But there is more.

Although the money paid to downwinders is "considered mandatory spending," the RECA is scheduled to "sunset," or stop paying compensation, as of July 10, 2022. That means that those alive in 1951 or after who were exposed to radiation and developed cancer will lose their right to file a claim for any money. As recently as March 2021, however, Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium pointed out that monitors were set up in New Mexico when the Nevada Test Site was in operation — meaning the fallout from nuclear testing affected more areas and more people than the maps on government sites show. Clearly, the fight for justice is far from over.