Loretta Berlonghi
I’m a Downwinder
They told us it was safe, but the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) knew the bomb tests could be lethal. The AEC began an open air atomic bomb testing program at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) on January 17, 1951 and it continued until the end of 1962. We were in a race with the U.S.S.R. for nuclear supremacy.
I lived in Utah during all 100 atmospheric tests, before they were forced underground by the Test Ban Treaty signed in 1963. They weren’t safe. I developed a blood cancer. When I learned the bombs had names, I felt sick to my stomach. I thought it couldn’t be true. But it was. The first grouping of tests, called Operation Ranger, consisted of five bombs with Code Names: Able, Baker, Easy, Baker-2, and Fox. The last one, Fox, was detonated on February 6, 1951 (two days after I was born) and had an energy yield of 22,000 tons of TNT. In comparison, 6 years earlier, the Hiroshima bomb named Little Boy had a yield of 15,000 tons of TNT and the Nagasaki bomb called Fat Boy yielded 21,000 tons of TNT.
The NTS detonations only took place when the wind was blowing south easterly which meant that fallout radiation would blanket everything in its path from Nevada to the east coast.
The AEC chose the Nevada location because they considered the nearby inhabitants “a low use segment of the population.” I was considered dispensable, part of an experiment and a Cold War victim. But really it was the entire country.
It’s been 15 years since I had a bone marrow transplant to treat Acute Leukemia. I lived in a RECA area from 1960 until 1963 and therefore qualified as a compensable Downwinder. Although I received $50,000 from the Department of Justice in 2008, it wasn’t nearly enough to cover medical expenses, loss of my business and my health for a lifetime. The duration from exposure to diagnosis varies, for me it was 45 years. Now we know there is no such thing as a “low dose of radiation” because its absorption is cumulative.
Hundreds of thousands of other U.S. citizens who were exposed, developed cancers and other diseases, have not been compensated. They should be.
The compensation package needs to be increased to at least $150,000 per individual, myself included.
Still, it wouldn’t be enough to counteract the years of illness, 528 hours of chemotherapy, 25 blood transfusions, total body irradiation and a bone marrow transplant. My health and personal loss can never be restored.