Downwinders Compensation: Eligibility, Payments, and 2027 Deadline

Downwinders compensation is a one-time $100,000 payment from the U.S. Department of Justice to people who lived near U.S. atmospheric nuclear test sites during the testing years and later developed one of a specific list of cancers or blood diseases. The program runs under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which Congress reauthorized on July 4, 2025, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Every claim must be filed by December 31, 2027. You do not have to prove in court that radiation caused your illness; you qualify by documenting where you lived, when you lived there, and what you were diagnosed with.¹

Where You Had To Live

The affected area covers the entire states of Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah, plus specific counties in Arizona and Nevada.¹

In Arizona, the qualifying counties are Apache, Coconino, Gila, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai. In Nevada, they are Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Nye, White Pine, and a defined portion of Clark County covering townships 13 through 16 at ranges 63 through 71.¹

When You Had To Be There, and For How Long

There are three ways to meet the residency requirement. You only need one.

One cumulative year in any affected area between January 21, 1951, and November 6, 1962. The 12 months can be consecutive or added up over that period.
Continuous presence in an affected area from June 30, 1962, through July 31, 1962, covering the Sedan test period.
One cumulative year in New Mexico between September 24, 1944, and November 6, 1962. The earlier start date accounts for the Trinity test conducted in July 1945.

These time periods and the one-year duration are the amended rules put in place on July 4, 2025. The prior federal regulations at 28 CFR Part 79 required two cumulative years and used an earlier end date of October 31, 1958, for specified disease claims. If you were denied under the older rules for falling short of two years, or because your dates fell outside the old window, the current criteria may now qualify you.¹

Which Illnesses Count

RECA does not cover all cancers. Covered conditions fall into three groups.

The first is leukemia, but not chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia claims carry two extra conditions: your first radiation exposure had to occur after age 20, and the disease had to appear at least two years after that first exposure.²

The second is multiple myeloma and lymphomas other than Hodgkin’s disease.

The third is primary cancers originating in specific organs:²

Thyroid, male or female breast, esophagus, stomach, and pharynx
Small intestine, pancreas, bile ducts, gallbladder, and salivary gland
Urinary bladder, brain, colon, ovary, and lung
Liver, unless the diagnosis indicates cirrhosis or hepatitis B as the underlying cause

For every covered disease except leukemia, your diagnosis must have come at least five years after your first exposure. A thyroid cancer diagnosed three years after you first lived in a covered area, for example, will not clear the latency threshold.²

Because coverage turns on the primary site, your medical documentation needs to identify where the cancer originated, not just where it later spread.

What the Payment Is Worth

The award is a fixed $100,000 lump sum set by statute. It is not scaled to the severity of your illness or the length of your exposure. Downwinder payments are not offset by any benefits you may have received from the Department of Veterans Affairs.¹

RECA payments are not subject to federal income tax. They are also excluded from income and resource calculations for Supplemental Security Income, so receiving a $100,000 award will not disqualify you from SSI. Interest earned on unspent RECA funds is likewise excluded from SSI income calculations for benefits payable on or after July 1, 2004.³

Filing Your Own Claim

You need to prove three things: your identity, your physical presence in an affected area during a qualifying period, and your diagnosis of a covered disease.

Presence is often the hardest piece, especially for people who lived in rural areas decades ago. Documents the program accepts include birth or death certificates listing an address, school or church records, medical or immunization records, tax filings, U.S. Census reports, and correspondence mailed through the U.S. Postal Service to an address in the affected area.⁴

When no single formal record covers the time period, you can combine less formal evidence: sworn affidavits from people who knew where you lived, yearbooks, photographs, family members’ tax filings or voter registration records, and personal letters or journals. The program was designed to work with a combination of records.⁴

Medical proof usually takes the form of pathology reports, hospital records, and physician statements confirming a diagnosis of a covered disease and identifying the primary cancer site.

You can file two ways. The online portal at reca.justice.gov is faster because you can upload scanned documents; the program may still ask you to mail originals or certified copies to verify authenticity.¹

To file by mail, send the completed claim form and originals or certified copies to:

U.S. Department of Justice
Radiation Exposure Compensation Program
P.O. Box 146
Ben Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20044-0146¹

The DOJ does not accept claims by email. General questions can go to Civil.RECA@usdoj.gov or 1-800-729-7327.

When the Exposed Person Has Died

If the person who was exposed has died, eligible surviving family members can file. The $100,000 payment is divided in equal shares among qualifying survivors, and the law sets a strict order of priority. A lower-priority relative qualifies only if no one in a higher tier does.²

Spouse, if married to the deceased for at least one year immediately before death
Children, only if there is no qualifying surviving spouse
Parents, only if there is no qualifying spouse or child
Grandchildren, only if there is no qualifying spouse, child, or parent
Grandparents, only if no one in any higher-priority group qualifies

Survivors provide the same identity, residency, and diagnosis proof a living claimant would, plus documents establishing the family relationship. A surviving spouse submits their own birth certificate, the deceased claimant’s birth and death certificates, proof of marriage such as a marriage certificate or public record of marriage, and a sworn statement of at least one year of marriage immediately before death. Children submit a birth certificate, adoption decree, or, for stepchildren, evidence they lived with the claimant in a regular parent-child relationship.²

After You File: Decisions and Appeals

An Assistant Director at the RECA Program reviews the claim against the statutory criteria. The regulations require a written decision within 12 months of the filing date. That clock pauses during any period when the program is waiting on additional information it has requested from you, so an incomplete package can stretch the timeline considerably.²

Before you submit, confirm that your medical records identify the primary cancer site, that your residency documents together cover the full time period the law requires, and that your identification reflects any name changes.

If the claim is denied, you have 60 days from the date of the denial to file a written appeal. Send it to the same P.O. Box, marked “Appeal of Decision,” with an explanation of why you believe the decision was wrong. An Appeals Officer reviews the full record and has 90 days to affirm the denial, reverse it, or send the case back for further review. You have to complete this administrative appeal before you can seek judicial review in court.²

Attorneys and Fees

Federal law caps what a lawyer can charge on a RECA claim. For an initial filing, the limit is 2% of the award: no more than $2,000 on a $100,000 payment. An attorney cannot collect a fee on an unsuccessful claim, though costs may be recovered.²

Two situations raise the cap to 10%: contracts entered into before July 10, 2000, for that specific claim, and resubmissions by an attorney of a previously denied claim that then succeeds. An attorney who charges over the cap faces a fine of up to $5,000. Because the fee ceiling is low, many people file without an attorney, and the DOJ built the process around that.²

The December 31, 2027 Deadline

Every RECA claim, whether from a living claimant or a survivor, must be filed by December 31, 2027. Gathering decades-old residency records often takes months, and if the program asks for more documents after you file, its 12-month decision clock pauses until you respond. Your claim itself, though, has to arrive before the cutoff.⁴

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
2
eCFR. 28 CFR Part 79 – Claims Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
3
Social Security Administration. Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund (RECTF) Payments
4
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández. RECA