Bennett grilled about avoiding Nuclear fallout

ST. GEORGE — Michelle Thomas remembers the embarrassment of having an activist for a mom.

"She kept a chart of the homes in a three-block radius around our house," said Thomas, 52, who grew up in St. George and still lives here. "She would put an "X" on a house when someone got cancer or there was a stillborn baby. It was so depressing. I kept asking her to take the chart down."

But Irma Thomas kept the chart up and kept talking about the nuclear tests she was certain caused her neighbors' various cancers and serious health problems.

"I remember someone called Mom a "commie pig" on the radio one day," said Thomas, who had ovarian cancer in high school and now struggles with a muscular disease. "She always said she was doing this for me. I'm just glad she passed away before I was diagnosed with breast cancer."

Thomas reluctantly carries on her mother's work of dogging politicians and trying to keep them on track about the dangers of nuclear radiation. She keeps a keen eye on legislation involving nuclear testing because "so many people who have cancer have suffered much greater than I have," Thomas said.

At a press conference in St. George on Friday, Thomas quizzed Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, about his commitment to keep Utahns safe from nuclear fallout, just as she did six weeks ago during a trip to Washington, D.C.

"Help me not to be fearful," Thomas said to Bennett, who is running for re-election against Democrat contender Paul Van Dam. Thomas worries that Bennett's support of nuclear research will eventually lead to support of more nuclear tests.

Bennett called the press conference for news reporters and a few others to introduce legislation he said would actually halt nuclear testing unless Congress gives its approval for testing and the public is involved.

"The Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act," which Bennett plans to introduce in the Senate after Labor Day, closely mirrors a bill filed earlier in the House by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

"I'm willing to spend money on nuclear research, but that's not an automatic road to testing," said Bennett. "If some future president says there should be some kind of nuclear tests, these safeguards are in place."

Bennett's bill strengthens Matheson's legislation by requiring the U.S. Department of Energy to install a radiation monitoring station in any Utah county that requests one. It ensures that Utahns sit on any commission or board relating to nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. It requires the National Academy of Sciences to conduct studies of health and safety precautions already in use at the Nevada Test Site.