In this opinion piece to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Linda Chase shares her experiences growing up in Las Vegas, just south of the Nevada Test Site. She also shares her views on efforts to extend and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which currently excludes most individuals who grew up in Clark County despite its proximity to the test site.
Nevada Test Site: Linda Chase
“My family moved to Las Vegas in 1955 and enjoyed an unobstructed view of the atomic blasts from our front yard. A brilliant flash lit up the predawn sky, followed by a mushroom cloud rising up from the desert floor. Like most Southern Nevadans, we were proud to be on the front lines of the Cold War, testing ever-more potent nuclear weapons to deter Soviet aggression. The U.S. government assured us again and again that fallout from the tests was minimal and posed no health risk. We believed what we were told, we drank the Kool-Aid. We also drank the milk from nearby dairies whose cows grazed on irradiated land and produced contaminated milk.”
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