Rep. Jim Matheson asks Utahns to sign petition against nuclear testing

SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, on Monday encouraged Utahns to sign an online petition against the resumption of nuclear testing.

Matheson called support for such testing by Utah's two GOP Senate candidates "disturbing" and pledged "to do everything I can to make sure we don't go down this path again."

The website, www.keeputahsafefromnukes.org, is paid for by Matheson's re-election campaign. The five-term congressman faces his first primary this year, against progressive Democrat Claudia Wright.

Wright also opposes nuclear testing and lifting the moratorium that has been in place since 1992. The GOP candidate for the 2nd Congressional district seat, Morgan Philpot, said he doesn't support resuming the testing of nuclear weapons either, and hopes eventually existing stockpiles will be destroyed. "I think the world would be a better place without nuclear weapons," Philpot said.

Matheson said his efforts are heartfelt, not political.

"I'm not getting involved in a Senate race," Matheson said at a news conference held in the Salt Lake City Council chambers. "I'm getting involved in stopping nuclear testing."

Matheson lost his father, Gov. Scott Matheson, to cancer blamed on living downwind from the Nevada Test Site, where atomic tests were conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. Jim Matheson has long fought nuclear testing in Congress and has made the issue a centerpiece of his campaign.

The two candidates squaring off in the GOP primary, Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee, both signed on to a national "Peace Through Strength" platform last week that deals with a number of issues, including nuclear testing.

The platform backs "a safe, reliable, effective nuclear deterrent, which requires its modernization and testing" as part of the nation's defense strategy.

Both Bridgewater and Lee, whose fathers also died from cancer attributed to having been downwinders, have said there may not be a need for detonating nuclear devices to test them. But Matheson said there's little chance new weapons would be developed without detonation testing.

"I think we have to be very careful," he said. "This is a big-time slippery slope."

Matheson said the Senate candidates appeared to have adopted the position without much thought. "I'd encourage them to take another look at the issue," he said.

Bridgewater and Lee, however, stand by their support.