File 044 · 1951–1990 · Fallout, Public Health

Nevada nuclear tests and the downwinders

Between 1951 and 1962 the United States detonated about 100 nuclear devices in the air over Nevada while telling nearby residents there was little danger. Decades later Congress compensated people who lived downwind of the site.

Background

In late 1950 the United States set aside a stretch of desert north-west of Las Vegas as a continental proving ground, later called the Nevada Test Site. The first test there took place in January 1951. Until atmospheric testing ended in 1962, roughly 100 devices were exploded above ground or on towers, and wind carried radioactive material over Nevada, Utah, Arizona and well beyond. The first underground tests came later, and testing at the site continued underground until 1992.

Officials of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) wanted testing to continue during the Cold War and were concerned about public alarm. Public statements of the period stressed that the tests were safe for people living nearby. Residents of small towns in southern Utah and Nevada, later called 'downwinders', say they were rarely given detailed warnings, saw clouds drift over their towns, and later noticed high rates of cancer and other illness.

What the record shows

• About 100 atmospheric tests were held at the Nevada Test Site between 1951 and 1962; the exact total varies slightly between sources depending on how tests are counted.
• The National Cancer Institute's 1997 report estimated thyroid doses of iodine-131 from the tests for the whole country, not only for Nevada and Utah, with the highest doses among children who drank fresh milk from local cows.
• In Bulloch v. United States (1956) the court held that the sheep owners had not proven that fallout killed their animals. Later evidence of AEC conduct led the same judge to reopen the case, but an appeals court reversed that decision in 1985.
• In Allen v. United States (1984) a district court found the government liable to some of the downwinder plaintiffs, but the Tenth Circuit reversed in 1987 on the ground that the government's decisions were protected from suit.
• The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 created a compensation program for people who lived in designated downwind areas and developed specified diseases, for on-site test participants and for uranium miners.

Timeline

• Jan 1951 The first atmospheric test is held at the Nevada proving ground.
• 1953 Sheep die in large numbers in southern Utah after a spring test series; the AEC attributes the deaths to other causes.
• 1956 In Bulloch v. United States a federal judge rules for the government because the ranchers did not prove their case.
• 1962 The last atmospheric test at the site is carried out.
• 1979 Congressional hearings examine the AEC's handling of the sheep case and of fallout warnings.
• 1984 A federal court in Utah rules for a group of downwinders in Allen v. United States; the Tenth Circuit reverses in 1987.
• 1990 Congress passes the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, with a statement of regret and fixed payments.
• 1997 The National Cancer Institute publishes its study of iodine-131 exposure from the tests.

Checking the claims

The claim that the government exposed citizens to fallout is not in dispute: the tests, the wind patterns and the contamination were all recorded by the government's own monitors. The question for investigators was how large the doses were and whether the public was misled about them. The 1979 hearings, later scholarly histories of the AEC and the courts' own findings in the 1980s examined internal documents on how risk was described to the public. Researchers have argued that agency leaders weighed the need to keep testing against public worries and that this shaped the reassurances given to residents.

The scientific question is harder. The National Cancer Institute's study and the National Research Council's 1999 review of it concluded that fallout reached people across the country and that doses varied widely with age, diet and place. Estimates of the resulting number of extra cancers carry large uncertainties, and it is generally not possible to say that a particular person's illness was caused by fallout rather than by other causes. This is why the compensation law uses residence in set areas and the presence of listed diseases rather than proof of cause in each case.

The legal outcome also shows the limits of the record. Judges found the government's conduct troubling in places, but appeals courts held that the government could not be sued for the way it ran the program. Congress then acted through legislation, which is itself an official acknowledgement that people were harmed.

Claimed, but not shown

It is claimed that the government deliberately set out to poison its own citizens. The record shows reassurance, poor warning and weighing of risks against testing needs, but it does not show an intent to harm people. The exact number of cancers caused by the fallout cannot be established and remains uncertain.

Verdict

Sources

• National Cancer Institute, Estimated Exposures and Thyroid Doses Received by the American People from Iodine-131 in Fallout Following Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests (1997)
• National Research Council, Exposure of the American People to Iodine-131 from Nevada Nuclear-Bomb Tests (1999)
• Bulloch v. United States, 145 F. Supp. 824 (D. Utah 1956)
• Allen v. United States, 588 F. Supp. 247 (D. Utah 1984), reversed 816 F.2d 1417 (10th Cir. 1987)
• Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, Public Law 101-426 (1990)

Connected files (red threads)

• Area 51 — Another secret Cold War testing site in the Nevada desert
• The Tuskegee Study — Another case of the US government putting citizens' health at risk without informing them

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