nuclear-news

Opposition to nuclear testing is led by Utah’s present and former Congressmen

Former and current Utah Congressmen: Say no to nuclear testing, KSL News Radio, BY CURT GRESSETH
JULY 23, 2020    SALT LAKE CITY — The US Senate is ready to restart nuclear weapons testing, but both a current and a former Utah congressman say the testing is still not safe.

The House recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act along with an amendment by Utah Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams that would block funding to restart nuclear weapons testing in the United States.

McAdams’ amendment was adopted along a mostly party-line vote of 227-179.

The Senate version of the NDAA includes $10 million to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 1992.

Nuclear testing

“Explosive nuclear testing causes irreparable harm to human health and to our environment, and jeopardizes the U.S. leadership role on nuclear nonproliferation,” McAdams said Monday in the House.

McAdams joined Lee Lonsberry on Live Mic to discuss his amendment on blocking funding for nuclear testing.

“Utah has been devastated from nuclear weapons testing for decades. The federal government lied to us. They told us it was safe, that there would be no harm that would come from this testing. Then so many people across our state developed cancer and other issues related to that testing, so we were lied to for years by our federal government,” McAdams said. ……..

Former Utah Rep. Jim Matheson

Former Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, also a Democrat, lost his father, former Utah Gov. Scott Matheson, to cancer blamed on living downwind from the Nevada Test Site where atomic tests were conducted in the 1950 and 1960s.

“This is an issue that obviously affected my family in a significant way — my extended family, let alone my own father, who was a Downwinder,” Matheson said.

While serving in Congress, Matheson said his efforts on nuclear weapons testing were focused on whether it was safe to conduct weapons tests. He said he introduced legislation that said the testing couldn’t move forward without the equivalent of an  environmental impact statement to assess all the risks and prove that it’s safe to test.

“The folks who were trying to move ahead with testing didn’t like that idea at all,” Matheson said. “It wasn’t safe when it was above ground and it wasn’t safe when it was below ground. It’s still not safe today.”

Cause for alarm

“Technology has not advanced to the point where you can be satisfied with the assertions of these testers, essentially that tests of this nature are safe,” Lee said.

“Absolutely not,” Matheson replied. “They have no justification for even saying that.”

If proponents wish to proceed, the former congressman called for a transparent, public process to assess all the risks of nuclear weapons testing.

“The facts will speak for themselves,” he said.

He said the $10 million appropriation in the Senate NDAA bill to start preparing sites for testing “should be a cause for alarm for all of us.”

“My gosh, we had the government lie to us here in Utah way back when. They told us it was safe. They knew it wasn’t,” he said.

Matheson said the government only did the testing when the wind blew the fallout in the least populated direction, which was southern Utah. He added that declassified documents referred to people living in southern Utah as a low-use segment of the nation’s population.

“Technology has not changed. Fallout is fallout. Wherever the wind blows it, it will pose a threat to all those who encounter it,” Lee said. https://kslnewsradio.com/1929771/former-and-current-utah-congressmen-say-no-to-nuclear-testing/

July 25, 2020 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA, weapons and war