1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act – Original Bill Language

PUBLIC LAW 101-426—OCT. 15, 1990  101st Congress

An Act

To provide jurisdiction and procedures for claims for compassionate payments for injuries due to exposure to radiation from nuclear testing.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of theUnited States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Radiation Exposure Compensation Act”.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS, PURPOSE, AND APOLOGY.

(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

(1) fallout emitted during the Government’s above-ground nuclear tests in Nevada exposed individuals who lived in the downwind affected area in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona to radiation that is presumed to have generated an excess of cancers among these individuals;

(2) the health of the individuals who were imwitting participants in these tests was put at risk to serve the national security interests of the United States;

(3) radiation released in underground uranium mines that were providing uranium for the primary use and benefit of the nuclear weapons program of the United States Govermment exposed miners to large doses of radiation and other airborne hazards in the mine environment that together are presumed to have produced an increased incidence of lung cancer and respiratory diseases among these miners;

(4) the United States should recognize and assume responsibility for the harm done to these individuals; and

(5) the Congress recognizes that the lives and health of uranium miners and of innocent individuals who lived downwind from the Nevada tests were involuntarily subjected to increased risk of injury and disease to serve the national security interests of the United States.

(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to establish a procedure to make partial restitution to the individuals described in subsection

(a) for the burdens they have borne for the Nation as a whole.

(c) APOLOGY.—The Congress apologizes on behalf of the Nation to the individuals described in subsection (a) and their families for the hardships they have endured.

Click here to read the full 1990 RECA Bill.