The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) is a federal program established to compensate individuals who developed serious illnesses (such as specific cancers) due to exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing fallout. "Downwinders" refers to residents who lived in designated counties (now expanded to include the entire state of Utah) downwind of the Nevada Test Site between 1951 and 1962, during which the U.S. government detonated over 100 nuclear tests.

Battling a severe illness like cancer or navigating the loss of a parent is hard enough without having to fight complicated government systems. Government databases, residency logs, and archive criteria are notoriously difficult to navigate. Landmark public policy research on 'administrative burden' shows that complex compliance rules and paperwork hurdles cause 70% to 90% of procedural rejections in regions like Utah and Nevada. We solve this exact bottleneck. Our team cleanly coordinates signatures across dispersed family members, searches historical property/voting archives for residency logs, and packages the file perfectly so it passes government audits on the first try.

We operate entirely on a contingency basis. There are no upfront fees, out-of-pocket tracking costs, or hidden search expenses. We only receive a small 2% processing fee once your claim is successfully approved and you receive your payout from the government. If you don't get paid, we don't get paid.

If you have the time available, experience working with archival records, and are comfortable managing government documentation and state audits on your own, you likely will not need our service. We built this platform for families who prefer to avoid the administrative coordination and would rather have specialists manage the paperwork.

Assembling a historical exposure claim requires a few core administrative steps. Our team cross-references historical local residency records, retrieves medical history files from hospital archives, and outlines family trees to confirm proper distribution among heirs. Once the historical data points are collected, we coordinate the necessary signature authorizations across surviving family members before packaging the file for review.

Once your profile is fully authorized and our automated search team retrieves your certified historical residency and medical files, the complete package is compiled and submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The federal review and payout processing typically takes between 6 to 9 months from the official filing date. Because files are evaluated in the order they are received, getting your documents submitted early is the best way to accelerate your timeline.

There is a strict statutory deadline for this program. All claims, supporting document archives, and legal signatures must be finalized and submitted before the program officially sunsets at the end of 2027. Because gathering historical records from hospitals and state archive registries can take several weeks, we are processing family groups immediately to ensure no one misses this window.

The legislative expansion (Public Law 119-21) dramatically increased benefits and access. Originally, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) capped survivor payouts at $50,000 and was strictly limited to residents who lived in a few specific downwind counties in Southern Utah. Under the new bill, the benefit was increased to $100,000 and the geographic boundary was expanded to cover the entire state of Utah. If you or your parent lived anywhere in Utah during the qualifying historical window, the estate is now fully eligible.

No. Wasatch Claims Group is an administrative research and claims processing service; we are not attorneys and do not provide legal advice or legal representation. Our focus is strictly on eliminating the administrative burden of the application process—locating public archives, matching residency records, and streamlining family signature coordination. If your claim requires legal counsel or complex estate litigation, you should consult a licensed attorney.

We take security and data privacy extremely seriously. All personal information, medical releases, and identity records are encrypted both in transit (using SSL/TLS 1.3) and at rest (using AES-256 standard encryption). We adhere to strict HIPAA compliance protocols for handling healthcare information, and your files are strictly accessible to authorized coordinators processing your specific claim. All documentation is handled with the utmost integrity and never lives on personal servers or hardware.