Deseret News
Sunday, January 30, 1994

HATCH SEEKS DATA ON DANGERS UTAHNS FACED IN TESTS
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By Lee Davidson, Washington Correspondent

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is asking the Energy Department to report on how much danger Utahns faced in some radiation experiments that were secret until last month.

President Clinton last week already ordered a new panel to look into a long list of once secret radiation tests, including six that dropped radioactive materials over Utah's Dugway Proving Ground from 1949 to 1952.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary Thursday, Hatch complained that a U.S. General Accounting Office report that revealed many of the tests suggested researchers did not have access to all documents about them.

"I hope that any documents relating to these tests will be found and made available for review," he said. "Congress needs to know what happened and who was injured so that it can respond appropriately."

The Deseret News has also filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain those documents.

Hatch asked that he be informed "especially about risks to which Utahns were exposed."

The GAO reported last month that the Army and the old Atomic Energy Commission dropped cluster bombs filled with radioactive materials in at least six tests. The tests were designed to find a weapon that could radiologically contaminate small areas.

Those are besides the thousands of tests of germ and chemical arms that occurred at Dugway and other public lands in Utah, and besides the nuclear bomb tests in Nevada that spread radiation throughout Utah.

The GAO also disclosed last month that the government spread radioactive particles in the atmosphere in Nevada so pilots could trace how it would disperse. Hatch also asked that the Energy Department evaluate any risk it may have posed to Utahns.

"I believe it is high time for the government's full disclosure to the victims," Hatch wrote.

Hatch also volunteered to use experience he gained by leading a 10-year fight for a bill to compensate downwind cancer victims of nuclear bomb testing to help with current inquiries.

"Please let me know in what ways my experience with this difficult issue might help ensure that the right questions are asked and that the answers are forthcoming," Hatch said.