"To Freeman, the money isn't the most important goal. A government acknowledgment that it put people at risk during nuclear weapons testing is what most downwinders want, she said. 'I want a big-time apology. Compensation is very secondary. I just want them to admit they did something that was wrong, and they won't ever, ever do it again,' Freeman said."

Despite a 1982 Congressional mandate to the Department of Health and Human Services to assess Iodine-131 exposure of the American people from US nuclear weapons tests, the study languished (for political reasons) until public demands forced the National Cancer Institute, tasked with conducting the research, to release its findings in 1997. ⁽³⁾

Responding to the massive public health crisis that directly resulted from nearly five decades of radioactive fallout from nuclear testing, the Clinton Administration fostered the creation of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to provide monitoring, health care, and compensation to a limited number of downwinders, DOE workers, and the uranium miners who are injured. In 1997, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under intense public pressure to analyze what areas of the U.S. received the fallout, finally released its report. Despite major methodological deficiencies, the NCI report offered the public its first glimpse into where the significant impact populations were in the continental U.S.. ⁽⁴⁾ The 1997 NCI report estimated that between 11,300 and 212,000 additional thyroid cancers over a 70-year period can be expected from Nevada Test Site (NTS) fallout. ⁽⁵⁾

More recently the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) Board on Radiation Effects Research was tasked with responding to public outrage over both the government's inadequate response to the RECA mandate, and the restart of nuclear weapons testing. Two public hearings were held in Utah and one in Arizona, but none in Idaho where the NCI study reports the highest fallout deposition occurred. ⁽⁶⁾ Responding to an unprecedented public outcry (over 400 comments to NAS), Idaho's political leaders finally forced the NAS to conduct a hearing in Idaho. See text box below on where to send your comments.

Spontaneous Downwinder public meetings are cropping up all over southern Idaho along with unprecedented press coverage from southern Idaho as well as the WA Spokesman Review. Dan Popkey reports on the Emmett, Idaho meeting in the Idaho Statesman (9/15/04) that, "The woman who began it all, Emmett native Shari Gorman, started the rally with a talk that left the crowd weeping and ID Sen. Crapo saying he'd never had to follow a more moving speaker. Gorman survived thyroid cancer but has since contracted breast cancer, which spread to her bones and liver. Gorman, 52, said she hopes to live another two or three years, though doctors tell her 2005 will be her last. Her goal is to see her daughter graduate on August 20, 2005. 'I have to keep my mind on the up things, but it 's really tough.' she said. 'I regret every day that this disease is going to take me away from my daughter. I won't be there to see her wedding. I won't be there to see her first child. I won't be there for her.' According to National Cancer Institute estimates, Gorman received 75 rads of iodine-131 on a single day, June 5, 1952.'That's the equivalent of 10,000 chest X-rays,' Gorman said. 'I was less than 6 months old and my fate was decided.' "

More than half a century ago, the first bomb tests sent clouds of radiation from Nevada toward Idaho. Gem, Blaine, Custer and Lemhi counties were four of the five hardest-hit counties (the fifth is in Montana) in the nation according to the 1997 NCI study of exposure to radioactive iodine. ⁽⁷⁾ Other heavy fallout states include Utah, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming.

The Environmental Defense Institute's July/August Newsletter details Idaho Cancer Registry's data that shows steady and significant increases of cancer in Idaho. ⁽⁸⁾ The public does not have the tools to differentiate if radiation exposure came from INEEL, Hanford, or from Nevada Test Site. ⁽⁹⁾ The problem is the Department of Energy is not willing to disclose this crucial information, even after five decades, because it would "compromise national security."

Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control conducting dose-reconstruction health studies at DOE sites is steadfastly opposed to combining the doses from the INEEL with the Nevada Test Site doses. This fundamentally deprives the affected public from crucial information about their own situations and their ability to develop informed decisions on past, present and future government activities that impact their lives. The Environmental Defense Institute (EDI) and Snake River Alliance (SRA) sent letters to the CDC's INEEL Health Effects Committee petitioning them to request public hearings for the downwinders, and we were summarily rejected. ⁽¹⁰⁾

Public interest groups spontaneously organized a public meeting in Emmett, ID where victims had a opportunity to tell their stories. More public meetings are planned for Gem and Custer counties. ⁽¹¹⁾ The Idaho Statesman editorial (9/14/04) notes, "Idaho's cancer victims need help from whole [Idaho Congressional] delegation" and also says that "Cancer victims in Gem County and Central Idaho are constituents asking for help that's long overdue." ⁽¹²⁾ Idaho's Senator Craig, Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Mike Simpson, and Governor Kirk Kempthorne remain mostly on the sidelines because they do not want to compromise nuclear funding for INEEL.

In a 2002 Health Physics article, Owen Hoffman et al. writes, "Exposures of the American public occurred nation-wide from the testing nuclear weapons in the United States, the Pacific, and the former Soviet Union. After decades of diminished public awareness on the subject of health risks resulting from exposure to fallout, the release of the National Cancer Institute's 1997 report on nationwide exposure to Iodine-131 from the Nevada Test Site (NTS) has led to renewed interest. Public requests for information are focused on individual and family health problems, the right to credible and full disclosure of information, and the need for medical care and assistance for exposure-related health problems. Public concerns have been raised regarding: (a) the lack of information on the potential health risks from exposure to all biologically significant radionuclides in fallout; (b) the lack of independent oversight that includes public participation; (c) governmental portrayal of exposures averaged over very large segments of the population without identification of much larger values for individuals or population subgroups likely to be at highest risk; and (d) a governmental response to known or suspected human exposures that consumes large periods of time and devotes considerable funding to various research-related activities before serious consideration is given to addressing health care responsibilities to exposed individuals. To some extent, these complaints and concerns are rooted in the legacy of government secrecy surrounding the development and testing of nuclear weapons, public distrust of government sources of information about radiation exposures and health risks, and the imposition of past exposures without informed consent. Members of the public participating in the oversight of dose reconstruction projects and epidemiologic studies are requesting information of the total impact from all relevant sources of exposure at each [Department of Energy] site that might contribute significantly to an individual's risk including exposure to local [DOE] releases and to NTS and global fallout. Information is being requested on individual doses and risks from these cumulative exposures, with estimates of uncertainty, including estimates of the absorbed organ dose (as opposed to the effective dose), the risk of disease incidence as opposed to the risk of a cancer fatality, and the chance that a person's diagnosed disease was caused by past exposure (i.e., the probability of causation)." ⁽¹³⁾

As public interest groups have said before, if the same rules used at present for compensating DOE workers and Atomic vets with cancer were to be applied to the general public (most of whom were exposed without informed consent, or worse), most all who were exposed as children during the 1950's and who today have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, would be eligible for compensation and life-time medical benefits, regardless of their location of residence within the USA.

Unfortunately, the rules for workers do not YET apply to the general public, at least not outside of designated counties in UT, NV, and AZ. These rules specify that the 99th percentile of the estimate of the probability of causation be above a value of 0.5. This means that there must be at least a one percent chance that the uncertain estimate of the probability of causation exceed a PC value of 50%. As EDI has previously noted, this situation occurs across the entire USA for I-131. Unfortunately, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will not allow PC estimates to be included in their I-131 fallout dose and risk calculator, nor will CDC allow such issues to be addressed in their dose reconstructions.

CDC released only one (yet unpublished) report thus far that alludes to the yet to be released CDC/NCI feasibility report to Congress on whether or not it is possible to do detailed dose reconstruction and risk evaluation of public exposures to all components of fallout. Apparently this Administration does not want such information to get out in the open. CDC's INEEL Health Effects Subcommittee summarily rejected Environmental Defense Institute and Snake River Alliance's petition to request National Academies of Sciences conduct Idaho downwinder hearings on the administrative technicality that "it is not in the subcommittee's purview to make recommendations to the National Academy of Sciences." This petition denial is yet another indication that CDC is following the Bush Administration directives to "keep the lid on."

The Environmental Defense Institute has accessed a document in the Department of Energy Archive dated June 26, 1962. This internal AEC Memorandum offers compelling evidence documenting that the 1960's underground Nevada Test Site (NTS) blasts also released significant radiation in the form of iodine-131. The AEC was reacting to the Public Health Service (PHS) milk sampling data taken after the June 13, 1962 underground NTS blast that showed high levels of iodine-131 in milk samples.

PHS milk samples revealed iodine-131 in microcuries per liter at Spokane, WA at 1240; Seattle, WA at 440; Portland, OR at 120; Idaho Falls at 30. PHS data also showed total estimated intake of iodine-131 from milk between September 1961 and June 19, 1962 (in microcuries) include: Minneapolis, MN at 31,020; De Moines, IO at 30,230; Kansas City, KA at 28,880 and other stations at less than 24,000. PHS 1959 testimony before Congress acknowledged fallout uptake of iodine-131in the thyroids of animals (700 to 3,000 picocuries) of iodine-131 per gram of thyroid tissue. ⁽¹⁴⁾ Given the fact this data represents thyroid concentrations (as opposed to water or milk) these doses are enormous and are indicative of what human thyroid doses would be.

The current Environmental Protection Agency Maximum Concentration level for Iodine in drinking water is 108 pico curies per liter. One microcurie is equal to one million picocuries.

The AEC memo acknowledges that "we have some serious problems." dealing with the political fallout if this information were to become public." The memo continues, "As you recall, Dr. Edward Mantell testified at the recent Congressional Hearings that high iodine levels in the country were due principally to the Nevada Tests. If the tests did cause these levels it will only add substance to Dr. Mantell's hypothesis against more tests at NTS." The memo also acknowledges that "The U.S. Weather Bureau has run preliminary projectories which indicate the possibility that the debris from the test shot June 13, 1962 at NTS could have been carried into the Washington state area." ⁽¹⁵⁾ Clearly the US government knew full well four decades ago what the public health hazards their nuclear programs were imposing on the American public without their knowledge or consent.

Other government documents acknowledge routine venting of underground tests in order to recover test equipment. The 1986 "Mighty Oak" underground blast was another test that got a lot of attention after the Canadian government blew the whistle on the US opportunistic releases in attempt to hide them while the Chernobyl radioactive clouds were circling the globe.

The Associated Press reported "rainwater samples taken in April 1986 at Spokane, WA had 6,060 picocuries of iodine-131 per liter, said Dick Milne, then Washington Governor Booth Gardner's deputy press secretary. A sample collected at Port Townsend had a 5,300 level. The previous high marks in the region were a reading of 5,250 picocuries at Portland, and 2,400 at Seattle." ⁽¹⁶⁾ In an August 7, 1986 article, the Seattle Times reports "The Department of Energy timed its venting of radioactive debris from a failed nuclear test in Nevada to make it appear it came from the Chernobyl accident." ⁽¹⁷⁾

The Public Health Service (PHS) was later morphed into the Centers for Disease Control, however the extensive radioactive monitoring data the PHS collected on the Nevada nuclear bomb tests and archived in Ohio were mysteriously "destroyed." This hard monitoring data could have provided significantly more accurate fallout doses than the National Cancer Institute computer models, or at least provide verification of the accuracy of the NCI models. No serious investigation has been launched on what happened to these PHS data.

J. Preston Truman reports that " Dr. Robert Pendelton (working for the Utah State Health Department) in July 1962 using a mobile whole body counter measured thyroid tissue in a Blue Bell, Utah farm animal of 800,000 pCi/gram thyroid concentration. ⁽¹⁸⁾

"Last year, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the effort was 'a study. It is nothing more and nothing less.' But a report from the Congressional Research Service says the five-year, $485-million budget proposal "seems to cast serious doubt on assertions that the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator is only a study.

"The report notes that the program, budgeted for $7.5 million in the current fiscal year, would grow to $27.6 million in fiscal 2005, under the proposal. Spending would rise to a peak of $128 million in fiscal 2008, followed by $88 million in 2009. By the end of that period, according to this schedule, the Energy Department would have a bomb design and would develop a process for building it." ⁽¹⁹⁾

The Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) developed a highly documented and compelling report showing the probable radiation releases to the atmosphere from testing and/or using shallow "bunker buster" nuclear weapons. UCS reports that, "Supporters of nuclear 'bunker busters' suggest that these weapons would allow the destruction of deeply buried targets without causing massive collateral damage." USC summarizes the results of their recent scientific studies, laying out the technical realities of how effective a nuclear bunker buster might be and what sort of nuclear fallout would result as follows as key factors:

"1.) Since weapons cannot penetrate very deeply into the ground, destroying deep, hardened targets requires powerful, high-yield nuclear warheads. 2.) Even a small, low-yield earth-penetrating nuclear weapon will create enormous fallout. 3.) The explosion cannot be contained underground. 4.) The radioactive debris thrown into the air can drift for miles on the wind. 5.) There is no guarantee that a nuclear blast will successfully destroy chemical or biological weapons. 6.) A nuclear attack on a bunker that contains chemical or biological weapons could easily lead to the release and spread of those agents. 7.) There are current conventional alternatives to the use of nuclear bunker busters." For more information on Union of Concerned Scientists research, see http://www.ucsusa.org.

High-level radioactive waste is the most deadly material on the planet. These INEEL operations have never been permitted under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act as required by law, or under the Clean Air Act statutory permitting requirements. Moreover, EPA's own Inspector General report on Region 10 that reviewed enforcement and monitoring found significant and substantive inadequacies with both Region 10, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. See EDI newsletter February 2004.

"The concern about the failure of government oversight in allowing unpermitted operations first arose from myself, and the Environmental Defense Institute studying thousands of pages of documents obtained from over a score of other FOIAs," said David McCoy. "The EPA itself was in a state of denial that any problem existed until the EPA IG examined our complaint. The EPA was behind the enforcement curve and now still intends to forestall a full public examination of documentation. Perhaps the EPA should consider the lesson here- citizens were able to spot an obvious and serious threat to the community while EPA was content to insult those citizens on its public website," McCoy concluded.

DOE had intended to send the current inventory of commercial nuclear reactor spent fuel (about 70,000 metric tons) now in temporary storage at power plants around the US as well as a limited amount of DOE waste. These waste storage facilities are reportedly at or near full, which means the utilities must either shutdown the reactors or build new storage units. In a desperate attempt to relieve the rapidly accumulating waste, DOE is trying to make deals with Native American tribal governments for "temporary storage." Legitimate tribal member's outrage over these "behind closed doors" agreements and distrust of the federal government's claims to "temporary," has forced the tribal governments to cancel most of the agreements with DOE.