[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3771-3772]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         SAFETY FOR AMERICANS FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING ACT

  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.

                              {time}  1945

  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

[[Page 3772]]

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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