Jim Matheson: “I am from the West. This is not the first time the West has been asked to shoulder the nuclear burden of our country.…”

“I am from the West. This is not the first time the West has been asked to shoulder the nuclear burden of our country. Dozens of atom bombs were detonated at the Nevada test site between 1951 and 1963. The West was chosen because as long as the winds were blowing east, the fallout avoided big cities and traveled over sparsely populated Nevada and Utah towns. I remember my father telling me how people in southern Utah would watch the sky light up, and how southern Utahans supported the program because they were strong patriots who believed in their country and they trusted their government. In the 1970s, my father, then the Governor of Utah, was puzzled over an alarming number of cancer deaths among our family and friends in southern Utah. Over and over he read 'cancer' on death certificates of family members, more than 50 aunts, uncles, and cousins. The Federal Government told us we were safe, but the Federal Government knew we were at risk. On October 7, 1990, my father died at age 61 from a cancer called multiple myeloma. Thousands of citizens throughout the West continue to get sick and die from radiation exposure-caused illnesses. We saw a picture of a license plate talking about the nuclear legacy of Nevada. That is a legacy of which we should be ashamed. Why are we moving this waste at this time?”