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Should anyone be surprised that evidence was
uncovered of yet another release of radiation at Dugway Proving Ground
in the late 1950s?
As he has many times before, Deseret News Washington Bureau Chief Lee
Davidson uncovered the newest information using the federal Freedom of
Information Act. He found evidence of the release of about 215.57
curies of radiation during eight separate tests designed to simulate
the meltdown of a small nuclear reactor - tests that were designed to
help build a nuclear-powered airplane Air Force officials already had
rejected.
Add this to a growing list of thousands of secret tests involving
radiological, chemical and germ warfare during that era - tests that
may have posed serious health risks for people living in Utah at that
time and that may still be causing problems as harmful materials work
their way through the food
chain. No, no one should be surprised by this. But Utahns have a right
to be angry that their government still is not telling the whole story
about its actions so many years ago.
President Clinton has convened a commission to study the extent of all
such tests. Presumably, this means the government is sympathetic to
the need for openness and no longer will hide behind the cloak of
national security - withholding information that poses no risks other
than for embarrassment.
However, the bureaucracies inside the military apparently haven't
gotten that message.
The Deseret News requested a copy of the report on the tests in July.
It didn't obtain one until late September, and then only after the
report had been shunted from one agency to another in an
administrative game of "hot potato" that would be comical were it not
so serious. Apparently, none of the agencies, from the Army to the Air
Force to the Energy Department, wanted to be responsible for releasing
it.
So much for trying to regain the trust Americans have lost in their
government. Anyone trying to understand why these tests were conducted
should be careful not to apply the standards of today's post-Cold War
world. The late 1950s was an era of extreme anxiety and mistrust - a
time when a nuclear war with the Soviet Union seemed a real threat.
That does not absolve the government from putting its own citizens at
risk in trying to counter that threat, and the government may yet have
to find ways to compensate for the problems it caused.
But, for the moment, learning the full extent of those tests is more
important than placing blame and exacting punishment. Millions of
people may already have suffered and died because of the tests, and
millions more may yet be at risk for illnesses related to them.
Reputable scientists disagree as to whether the most recently revealed
tests could have caused any harm, but they have no way of assessing
harm without access to all available information.
The past is gone. Nothing can be done to undo the effects of mistakes.
But if the government continues to withhold what it knows about the
past, it will be exhibiting a lack of regard for Americans as
disturbing as what it displayed when it conducted the tests so many
years ago. |
