By CORINNE MESSER
The Progress
A former Moapa Valley resident was recently featured at a book-signing for a work he had recently completed. Bruce Church, who lived in Logandale for 28 years appeared at a book signing for The Fallout Story, held at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas.
Church served as former assistant manager for environmental safety, health and security for the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Church’s book describes his experiences studying radiation fallout exposure; first as a young observer while milking cows in La Verkin, Utah in the 1950’s; as a lab technician measuring fallout; as a university student working on a fallout research project; and finally as a manager responsible for all safety and environmental protection programs for the DOE in Nevada.
Church spent his professional career specializing in “radiological health.” He was involved in, and he managed, many radiological remedial action projects over the last 30 years.
Church was involved with the DOE in starting the Community Environmental Monitoring Program (CEMP). Started in the 1970s, this program currently has 24 monitoring stations in Nevada, California, and Utah that are downwind of the Nevada Test Site. The stations monitor the airborne and groundwater environments for manmade radioactivity that could result from Test Site activities.
“The main thing I came to realize was the radiation exposures to the veterans and the public was not even close to being high enough to cause cancer and other claimed maladies,” Church said of his many years of research.
Both Mesquite and Overton have monitoring stations. The Overton station is located in the Moapa Valley public library parking lot. It has been monitored by retired school teachers, Nick Bowler and Jack Nelson for many years.
When asked about his work at the station, Bowler stated, “In most of the findings, the exposure rates have not been provable (to cause cancer). There were exposures at times, but nothing significant.”
More information about CEMP can be found at cemp.dri.edu. Each of the monitoring station supervisors are also available to facilitate public outreach.
“It has been my intent to present this book so that readers can see the long-time scientific evidence that refutes the tall tales and misinformation currently being disseminated by regulatory agencies, politicians, media, and activists,” Church said.
The Fallout Story can be purchased at the National Atomic Testing Museums’ website at store.nationalatomictestingmuseum.org.
