More people exposed to Manhattan Project chemicals deserve compensation, advocates say [Video]

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has been a lifeline for some people and families exposed to toxins linked to decades-old nuclear weapons tests, but advocates say more people deserve compensation. 

The law, first enacted in 1990 and set to expire this year, has provided payments for anyone who may have contracted certain cancers and illnesses as a result of the effort to build the first atomic bomb.

“This goes back to the Manhattan Project and all of the Cold War era, when the government’s nuclear program was really made possible by working people who went to the mines, who processed uranium. They’d been exposed to this nuclear radiation and not been compensated,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said.

From 1945 to 1962, the U.S. conducted nearly 200 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. Thousands of workers were hired to mine for uranium throughout the West while others worked at test sites. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act covered …