Downwinders

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Downwinder is a term used to describe people across the United States who were exposed to radioactive fallout from both atmospheric and underground nuclear weapons testing. It has also been used to describe those exposed to radiation through experimentation and uranium mining.

In the 1950s, people who lived in the vicinity of the Nevada Test Site were encouraged to sit outside and watch the mushroom clouds that were created by nuclear bomb explosions. Many were given radiation badges to wear on their clothes, which were later collected by the Atomic Energy Commission to gather data about radiation levels.

Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, downwinders who are able to show correlations between certain diseases and their personal exposure to nuclear fallout are eligible for up to $50,000 in compensation from the federal government.

The threat of downwind exposure to radioactivity remaining at the Nevada Test Site from nuclear weapons tests was still an issue as late as 2007. The Pentagon planned to test a 700-ton ammonium nitrate-and-fuel oil "bunker buster" weapon. The planned "Divine Strake" test would have raised a large mushroom cloud of contaminated dust that could have blown toward population centers such as Las Vegas, Boise, Salt Lake City, and St. George, Utah. This project was cancelled in February of 2007 in large part due to political pressure inspired by the the threat of downwind exposure to radioactivity.