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On October 5, 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act ("RECA" or "the Act"), 42 U.S.C. § 2210 note, providing for compassionate payments to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases as a result of their exposure to radiation released during above-ground nuclear weapons tests or as a result of their exposure to radiation during employment in underground uranium mines. The 1990 Act provided fixed payments in the following amounts: $50,000 to individuals residing or working "downwind" of The Nevada Test Site; $75,000 for workers participating in above-ground nuclear weapons tests; and $100,000 for uranium miners.

Treating radioactive wastes lingering from the Cold War era when the United States experimented with nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site is in its final chapter, the National Nuclear Security Administration said today. Since completing 48 shipments involving 1,860 55-gallon drums of what's known as "transuranic," or TRU, wastes from the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. In November 2005, Nevada is preparing another 58 oversized boxes for disposal.

On Dec. 18, 1950, President Truman approved establishment of a facility on the Las Vegas-Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery Range in Nye County. At first the site encompassed 350 square miles. Subsequent expansions led to its present size of 1,375 square miles. Dina Titus suggests in her book, "Bombs in the Backyard: Atomic Testing and American Politics," that the Nye County location was selected for several reasons: It was the largest of the proposed sites; it was under the jurisdiction of the federal government, meaning less conflict with local governments; it was supported by Nevada's powerful Sen. Pat McCarran; it was a sparsely populated area, with the nearest residents 25 miles away; and it had low rainfall and predictable winds.

The Northern Territory Resources Department says it is justified in allowing uranium exploration on a site near Alice Springs because most of the objections it received did not relate to the exploration process. There have been two protests in Alice Springs since the Government's decision to grant exploration rights for the Angela-Pamela deposit.

The Greens say there is an opportunity for the community to have its say about a possible radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory. The Federal Government is waiting for a report on the suitability of three sites in the Territory for a dump. The Greens have introduced a bill into Federal Parliament to overturn legislation forcing a dump on the Territory and the bill has now been referred to a committee of inquiry. Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says if there is enough interest it may come to the Territory to consult first-hand.

An Alice Springs environment group say the Northern Territory Government has ignored community opposition to uranium exploration south of the town. The Government has granted a mining joint venture an exploration licence for the Angela and Pamela deposits 25 kilometres from the town. The companies plan to begin drilling next year once they get the necessary sacred sites and environmental approvals. But Natalie Wasley, from the Arid Lands Environment Centre, says the Government should have blocked the application on behalf of the community.

An estimated 100 people have marched in Tennant Creek this morning in protest at the proposal to place a nuclear waste facility at a site north of the town. Traditional owners from Muckaty Station, which negotiated with the former federal government to place the facility there, were at the protest and say they never supported the proposal.

The leader of the Greens Party says the prospect of a uranium mine going ahead near Alice Springs is a vote-changing issue for central Australians in the Northern Territory election. The Greens have candidates in six of the 25 seats across the Territory for next Saturday's election.

The Federal Opposition's resources spokesman David Johnston says the proposed Commonwealth nuclear waste facility will be a small-scale operation for low level waste and it will most probably be in the Northern Territory. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson is expected to receive a report on four possible sites in the Northern Territory before the end of next month.

A little learning, it is said, is a dangerous thing. That's what happened to a policeman and his colleagues who balked at the idea of touching a sealed packet supposedly containing a cake of radioactive uranium.

WHEN Kevin Rudd unveiled his push for a world free of nuclear weapons, he was saying nothing unusual as leader of a party averse to almost all things nuclear. However, eyebrows were certainly raised when a few days earlier his energy minister Martin Ferguson declared the Government would break an election promise by building a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.

In 1958, Troy Wade worked at the Nevada Test Site. His knowledge of that era comes in handy as president of the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. "The Soviet Union tested their own atomic bomb, and suddenly this country was faced with a very different problem. Instead of developing weapons to be used against another country, suddenly this country had to defend itself against nuclear weapons developed by somebody else. That led to the establishment of the Nevada Test Site in 1950," he said.

Darwin Morgan, a federal spokesman at the Nevada Test Site, today confirmed that all restrictions on Perma-Fix Environmental waste shipments had been lifted. In addition to the company's M&EC facility in Oak Ridge, Perma-Fix has waste operations at Richland, Wash., and Gainesville, Fla. "The three sites have met the requirements and are now back as approved generators to send us waste," Morgan said this afternoon.

A study scheduled to be presented at a meeting of the Nevada Test Site Community Advisory Board May 6 shows the maximum possible exposure to a normal shipment of radioactive material -- from a truck parked at a rest area -- would be one-sixth the ordinary background radiation level in Nevada for a whole year. Ruth Weiner, with Sandia National Labs, will present an assessment of the risks of exposure to shipments of radioactive material to the CAB at 6 p.m., May 6 at the Bob Ruud Community Center. She is part of a program named RADTRAN.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that $44 million will be used for environmental cleanup at the Nevada Test Site where nuclear weapons experiments were conducted during the Cold War. The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and is part of $6 billion to be used for cleanup nationwide. The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will continue its activities to monitor groundwater, explore soil and groundwater contamination and remove contaminated materials, Chu said. The Test Site was the continental proving ground for experimenting with both above-ground and underground nuclear weapons for the United States from 1951 until 1992.

"Former Nevada Test Site workers who are seeking compensation from the federal government for cancer they contracted while working on underground nuclear tests are one big step closer to achieving that goal. The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health has granted "special exposure cohort status" to individuals who worked at the Test Site from 1963 through 1992, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced today. Reid hailed the unanimous vote as great news for workers who served the nation during the Cold War."

"Greens' Senator Scott Ludlam said scrapping the Napperby uranium project is a win for the people of central Australia. Toro Energy has announced it will not be acquiring the Napperby project, north-west of Alice Springs, from Deep Yellow Limited. Mr Ludlam said as well as long-term environmental impacts, uranium mining offers no economic benefits to any community. "You'd would be looking at almost entirely a fly-in, fly-out operation which does very little for regional economics and the costs are enormous," he said. "Whether it be to culture and heritage from Aboriginal people, long-term damage to water resources, worker health and safety issues and not to mention the larger issues of what happens to this material once we export it. "It's an industry with a lot of costs and not many benefits.""