8-14-06

Feds, Mormons denied radiation sickness downwind of 1950s Nevada nuclear tests [audio 29min]





In the early 1950s, life was peaceful in the almost exclusively Mormon community in the small town of St. George, Utah. But then, radiation linked illnesses began to appear. Families lost mothers and husbands, children died. St. George and its people were the victims of radioactive dust, drifting over from atmospheric atomic tests, carried out in the Nevada desert. Only in recent years has the government acknowledged weapons testing as the likely cause of killing or sickening civilians downwind. The Justice Department started a compensation program that requires victims to prove they have a qualifying type of cancer and that they were residents of counties in southern Utah, Nevada, or Arizona. Many victims have been compensated, but the money has run out and an estimated $70 million worth of claims are still unfulfilled. Producer Wayne Brittenden of the British Broadcasting Corporation, talked to the 'downwinders' and reports on the official cover-up by the U.S. government and the Mormon church.

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