The federal government has put in place a compensation program for those who live near Proving ground in Nevada and had cancer associated with radiation from nuclear explosions. However, unlike residents in other parts of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, residents of Kingman and Lower Mojave County have never received compensation from the federal government.
Lower Mojave County residents don’t know why the federal government expelled them from 1990. Radiation Exposure Compensation Actknown as RECA. It’s the same with lawmakers who have fought to expand the program for years. With RECA ending in 2022, they said, there is an urgent need to include residents like Stevens, her neighbors and relatives.
“We want to make sure that all affected families are appropriately recognized and compensated,” said Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, who, along with Paul Gosar of Arizona, introduced legislation this year that will expand RECA to include the entire Mojave County and also Clark County, Nevada, much of which has also been excluded from the compensation program.
“They suffered so that we could develop American defenses at a time when we tested nuclear missiles, and now we have a responsibility to do our part to ensure their recognition, recognition and compensation,” Stanton said.
Stevens has been president for over ten years Mojave County Downwindersby sending letters to MPs and collecting personal stories. She hopes that she and others downstream will be able to see these changes in their lives.
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“We have fought for so long, for so many years,” she said. “I want this to be resolved.”
The dangers and consequences of atomic testing were unknown to the public when testing began at the Nevada test site, now known as the Nevada National Security Site. One hundred nuclear tests at the test site from 1951 to 1962 were ground-based.
Stevens said catching a glimpse of flares or huge mushroom clouds was a form of entertainment. The times and dates of the explosion were advertised in the newspapers. On test days, children were given short breaks to stand in the schoolyard and watch explosions paint the sky orange. In Las Vegas, just 65 miles from the test site, companies billed as attractions view from the hotel windows.
Stevens recalls being a teenager in 1953, she, her father, her uncle and her brother rode on horseback to the Aquarian Mountains to get a better look at one of the nuclear explosions. As they watched the plume fly into the sky, they felt the wind blowing smoke and dust towards them. They hurried down the mountain, trying to escape the rain. But by the time they got home, their clothes were covered in oily pink spots, Stevens said.
“So almost everyone there got cancer,” she said. Her father died of colon and kidney cancer. Her brother, who is still alive, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Colon cancer, which is also diagnosed by Stevens, is covered by RECA.
