Experts: U.S. Should Hear Radiation Fallout Claims
The U.S. government should begin to hear claims from people in all 50 states who think they were affected by nuclear fallout from 1950s weapons tests in Nevada, a panel of experts has suggested.
However, cancer victims would have the difficult task of proving that the nuclear fallout actually caused their illnesses, the experts commissioned by the National Research Council said.
Data obtained since 1990 suggest that people as far away as the East Coast of the United States could have been exposed to radiation carried by wind and other weather patterns from Nevada test sites, the Associated Press reported.
Fifteen years ago when it apologized to local victims of the Nevada fallout, the federal government set up a compensation fund that made people eligible for lump-sum payments of $50,000 to $100,000. It wasn't immediately clear from the expert panel's recommendations, which were issued on Thursday, whether they would encourage Congress to expand eligibility for the compensation fund, the AP said.
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