Close Enough to Compensate, Too Far to Be Heard

Last summer, the federal government agreed that people in Paducah were harmed by radiation. This year, that same government told some of those same people they live too far away to have a say about a new nuclear plant going up in their backyard.

Both of those things cannot be true. And yet here we are.

Let me tell you about Mark Donham.

Mark has spent more than forty years paying attention to what happens at the old Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. He served eight years on the Citizens' Advisory Board, the federal committee created to deal with the contamination that plant left behind. He was elected chair for six of those years. He manages the produce department at a Paducah local market, where he has sold fruits and vegetables grown right here in our community. He grows and sells his own produce too. Years ago, the state's own environmental agency found detectable levels of radioactive material in produce coming from the West Paducah area. Mark knows this ground, and he knows what it has been through.

Mark also buried his wife. Forty years together, and she died from an aggressive pancreatic cancer a little over ten years ago. She did not smoke. She barely drank. She ate well and stayed active. Mark cannot prove what caused it. Nobody can. But when you live in a place with higher than average cancer rates, downwind from decades of radioactive releases, you start asking hard questions. Any of us would.

So when Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) applied for a license to build a new uranium enrichment facility adjacent to that same contaminated site, Mark did what he has always done. He spoke up. He joined a formal request to take part in the licensing process, filed by the Kentucky Resources Council. He wanted a seat at the table.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told him no.

Not because his concerns were wrong. They barely engaged his concerns at all. They said he lives too far from the plant. About seventeen miles. In their eyes, that distance makes any exposure so small it does not count. Clean slate. Nothing to see here.

Here is the part that should make every one of us sit up.

A few months earlier, in July of 2025, Congress expanded the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, and it became federal law. That law now recognizes three Paducah area zip codes, 42001, 42003, and 42086, as places where people were exposed to radioactive contamination serious enough to compensate. If you lived, worked, or went to school in those zip codes for at least two years and later developed one of the covered cancers, the government will pay you. That is not a rumor. That is the law.

Think about what that means. Those three zip codes cover roughly 175 square miles and around 64,000 people. The federal government looked at this community and said the radiation harm here is real, and it drew that harm across a wide stretch of ground.

So one branch of the government admits the harm is real enough to pay for. Another branch says you live too far away to even be heard. You can't have it both ways.

To be fair, those two laws are not the same thing. The compensation covers the mess the old plant left behind, not the new facility being proposed. And being eligible for a payment is not the same as having legal standing in a hearing. Nobody is claiming otherwise.

But the bigger point stands. The NRC is treating Paducah like a place with a clean environmental slate, where a little more radiation would not matter. Federal law just said the opposite. This community already carries a heavy radioactive legacy. That is exactly the reason a new plant should not move forward on assumptions and paperwork.

It should move forward only after an independent, cumulative environmental study. One that looks honestly at what is already in our soil, our water, and our air. One that adds up the full impact of decades of contamination plus whatever two new uranium enrichment facilities would bring. One done by people who do not have a permit or a paycheck riding on the answer.

That study has not happened. Right now, money and permits are moving faster than the science.

We can change that. Here is how:

• Submit a public comment to the NRC. Your voice becomes part of the official record, and living farther from the plant does not disqualify you from commenting.

  • Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2025-1007. Address questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Bridget Curran - email: Bridget.Curran@nrc.gov.

• Show up. Come to public meetings and hearings. Follow our Facebook page for meeting dates. Bring a neighbor.

• Contact your local and state officials. Tell them you want an independent, cumulative environmental study before one more dollar or permit is approved.

  • You can start by emailing Judge Clymer at cclymer@mccrackencountyky.gov

• Sign and share the petition calling for an Independent Cumulative Environmental Study before any of these projects move forward. Seriously - share it with everyone. The more signatures we get, the more likely we'll get the study done.

• Talk about this. Share Mark's story. Share your own story. Many folks are only being told one side of the story and trust that the projects are safe. But no one knows that without a true independent study.

We are not asking anyone to stop progress. We are asking for the truth first. Before the funding. Before the permits. Before another family has to wonder what made them sick.

Paducah has carried this weight for generations. The least we deserve is an honest accounting before we are asked to carry more.

Check the Actions You Can Take page for more activities and details on how you can support our efforts to Protect McCracken County.