Editing Orrin Hatch (section)

==== Nuclear testing ====
{{Main|Radiation Exposure Compensation Act}}
[[File:Sen. Hatch and Rep. Owens.jpg|thumb|Hatch holds a press conference with Representative [[Wayne Owens]] in March 1989 as part of their successful charge to win passage of the [[Radiation Exposure Compensation Act]] (RECA).]]
During Hatch's first year in the Senate in 1977, reporter Gordon Eliot White of the ''[[Deseret News]]'' published the first of what would be a lengthy series of articles detailing government malfeasance in atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs at the [[Nevada Test Site]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Decades of Experiments Leave Lasting, Woeful Legacy |url=https://www.deseret.com/1994/12/22/19149259/decades-of-experiments-leave-lasting-woeful-legacy |access-date=26 April 2022 |work=[[Deseret News]]|date=22 December 1994 }}</ref> Over the next 13 years White's articles detailed how the government determined to proceed with the tests, and with mining and refining, without adequate safeguards for innocent citizens whose health would be damaged.<ref>{{cite news |last1=White |first1=Gordon Elliot |title=U.S. Kept Ignoring Evidence Aout Fallout's Deadly Effects |url=https://www.deseret.com/1990/10/28/18888221/u-s-kept-ignoring-evidence-about-fallout-s-deadly-effects |access-date=26 April 2022 |work=[[Deseret News]] |date=28 October 1990}}</ref> Though Hatch feared an investigation would endanger the nation's nuclear deterrence versus the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[People's Republic of China]], by 1979 he was pushing for hearings on the issue before the Senate Labor Committee. Hatch prevailed on Committee Chairman [[Ted Kennedy]] to hold field hearings in Utah in 1980. At the end of 1980, Hatch was positioned to chair the committee himself.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dewar |first1=Helen |title=2 Incoming GOP Chairmen Take Aim at Big Labor |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/11/08/2-incoming-gop-chairmen-take-aim-at-big-labor/a6571534-1b0f-42fa-b2b0-d9f71f4f82fd/ |access-date=26 April 2022 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |publisher=Nash Holdings |date=8 November 1980 |location=Washington, D.C. |language=English}}</ref>

By 1984, Hatch had held a dozen hearings, passed legislation requiring scientific investigation of the injuries, and enlisted the aid of the [[National Science Foundation]] and [[National Cancer Institute]], but still could not muster the votes to get a bill passed. When a vote was obtained in the Senate in 1985 (as an amendment to a bill to compensate affected [[Pacific Islanders]] for nuclear tests in the 1950s), it failed by a handful of votes.<ref name="DeseretNews-19901028">{{cite news |title=Justice For Fallout Victims Has Been Long Time Coming |author=Gordon Eliot White |url=https://www.deseret.com/1990/10/28/18888209/justice-for-fallout-victims-has-been-long-time-coming-br |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |date=October 28, 1990 |access-date=May 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022162648/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/129343/JUSTICE-FOR-FALLOUT-VICTIMS-HAS-BEEN-LONG-TIME-COMING.html |archive-date=2012-10-22 |url-status=live }}</ref> Hatch discovered a clause in the proposed Treaty of Peace and Friendship with [[Kiribati]] and [[Tuvalu]] to pay at least $100&nbsp;million to residents of the [[Marshall Islands]] for injuries similar to those of Utahns, and Hatch took the treaty hostage. His hold on consideration of the treaty eventually got agreement from the Reagan administration to agree not to oppose radiation compensation for Utah citizens, but it still took another five years to get the bill through. The [[Radiation Exposure Compensation Act]] of 1990 provided compensation for citizens injured by radioactive fallout from the tests.<ref name="DeseretNews-19901028" />

In December 2010, Hatch was one of twenty-six senators who voted against the ratification of [[New START|New Start]],<ref>{{cite web |author=Mark Memmott |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/12/22/132262684/senate-ratifies-start |title=Senate Ratifies START |publisher=[[NPR]] |date=22 December 2010 |access-date=22 December 2010 |archive-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150331202810/http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/12/22/132262684/senate-ratifies-start |url-status=live }}</ref> a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when [[START I]] expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/world/europe/23treaty.html|title=Senate Passes Arms Control Treaty With Russia, 71–26|first=Peter|last=Baker|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 22, 2010|access-date=February 21, 2019|archive-date=December 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229151646/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/world/europe/23treaty.html|url-status=live}}</ref>