Seeking Answers on Nuclear Fallout in the CNMI

Sometimes our work begins with a question from the community. Recently, members of our community raised concerns with me about whether radioactive fallout from U.S. nuclear testing in the Pacific may have reached the Northern Mariana Islands and what that exposure could have meant for our people. Following our work to examine the issue and raise these concerns with our federal partners, the newly introduced Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act of 2026 includes language directing the Department of Energy to study whether fallout from U.S. nuclear testing between 1946 and 1962 reached the CNMI, assess potential radiation exposure and health risks, and determine whether the evidence supports extending federal radiation-exposure compensation eligibility to CNMI residents. I am grateful to Congressman James Moylan for his partnership in ensuring the CNMI was included. We do not know what the science will tell us, but our people deserve to have the question asked, the history examined, and the research done.