By Lindsay Potter
The U.S. senate approved legislation on July 27 expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to provide benefits to more radiation-affected Americans, the New Mexico Downwinders, uranium miners and workers since 1971, and residents of Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Guam, and previously excluded areas in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. This legislation still awaits a decision in the House. In contrast, the U.S. government claims the pool of funding for medical compensation has run dry for the Marshallese people, displaced and poisoned by nuclear weapons the U.S. detonated over their homelands. Marshallese parliament speaker Kenneth Kedi told the Marshall Islands Journal, “the fact that U.S. authorities can tell the Marshall Islands there is ‘no more money’ for nuclear test exposure for people who lived through 67 of the largest U.S. nuclear weapons tests ever conducted while at the same time preparing to expand compensation coverage for Americans is astounding.”
The U.S. and the Marshall Islands are renegotiating the Compact of Free Association to address the egregious crimes against the Marshallese people by providing compensation, benefits, and access to immigration, though in amounts far below what was requested by the Marshall Islands. Still, Kedi says, “As nuclear test victims ourselves we support compensation for American victims of nuclear tests, whether they are Downwinders or worked at nuclear test sites or worked in uranium mines.”
—AP and KRWG July 27; Marianas Variety, Aug. 21, 2023; trinitydownwinders.com
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