Compensation Sought by Nuclear ‘Downwinders’
Dozens of Idaho residents who claim nuclear tests conducted during the 1950s made them sick asked a panel of scientists to recommend that the U.S. government compensate them.
The group, who call themselves “the downwinders” in reference to the toxic clouds that the wind carried their way from test sites in Nevada, described how radioactive waste coated their farms and towns 50 years ago. They believe it caused many of them to get cancer.
The U.S. government tested nuclear bombs in the Nevada desert in above-ground tests from 1951 to 1962.
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