Amid RECA expansion, Downwinders Clinic will stop in more cities — including central Utah 

A fireball rises into the sky over Nevada after the U.S. government detonated a 61-kiloton device on June 4, 1953. Nuclear weapons experiments at the Nevada Test Site spread fallout to other states, including Utah, research and records show. (Getty Images)

An educational clinic from the St. George Regional Hospital is making more stops in different cities across Utah, now that the U.S. Congress expanded the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, also known as RECA — and more people in the state are eligible for indemnification.

Intermountain Health’s Downwinders Clinic will visit St. George, Nephi, Salt Lake City and Manti to host public informational meetings this month. 

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“These meetings are to inform the public about the reinstatement and expansion of the RECA program and what areas now qualify,” Intermountain Health emphasized in a news release.

Applications will be available at the sessions for those who have asked for one but have not yet received it.

In the updated RECA reauthorization, lawmakers increased the compensation amount from $50,000 to $100,000 for those who developed serious illnesses from nuclear weapons testing in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and New Mexico. However, those who have already received RECA payments can’t reapply for additional compensation.

The program was also expanded, going from covering only 10 counties in the state to include all of Utah for eligibility. 

People who lived in the state for at least 12 months between 1951 and 1962 and contracted certain types of cancer may be entitled for compensation. Eligible cancers include leukemia — but not chronic lymphocytic leukemia — multiple myeloma, lymphomas (other than Hodgkin’s), and primary cancers of the pharynx, small intestine, salivary gland, brain, stomach, urinary bladder, colon, thyroid, pancreas, breast, esophagus, bile ducts, liver, gall bladder, lung, and ovarian.