WASHINGTON - Rep. Chris Cannon is voicing his support for resumed testing of nuclear weapons as a deterrent against people who want to harm the United States.
    "To the degree that we have people blow up our skyscrapers and hiding underground we have to have the ability to respond to them," Cannon said Tuesday. "I don't ever expect we'll end up using a bunker buster, but the other side needs to know that we have them."
    The tests, Cannon said Tuesday, should not be limited to a bunker busting nuclear weapon, which the Bush administration has proposed spending $8.5 million to study, although Congress rejected past requests. The testing should also include the existing nuclear stockpile to ensure the weapons have not deteriorated, he said.
    "What we really want here is deterrence. We want people to get out of their holes and into the democratic process and we want to scare them out," he said. "We need to give them the fear of destruction and hopefully over time people will recognize that the democratic system works."
    The testing does not necessarily begin immediately, Cannon said, but the president should have the authority to resume testing if he deems it appropriate.
    The issue of nuclear weapons testing is a sensitive one in Utah, where Cold War-era weapons testing in the Nevada desert rained radiation down on unwitting residents. Years later, thousands of "downwinders" were stricken with various forms of cancer.
   "We've been A-bombed, nerve-gassed and lied to enough," said J. Preston Truman of the group Downwinders. "You can't have it both ways. You can't say you are going to take care of your constituents and on the other hand say it's OK to come and bomb us again."
   In its recently concluded session, the Utah Legislature unanimously passed a resolution signed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. adamantly opposing resuming nuclear weapons tests.
   "A resumption of nuclear testing at the federal government's Nevada Test Site would mean a return to the mistakes and miscalculations of the past, which have marred many Utahns," the resolution stated, and it "would signify a dramatic step backward in the United States of America's resolve to learn from its tragic nuclear testing legacy."
    As a young attorney in 1979, Cannon worked with former Interior Secretary and Congressman Stewart Udall to put together a lawsuit, Irene Allen v. United States, demanding compensation from the government for 24 residents sickened by exposure to radiation.
    The case was overturned on appeal in 1983, but Congress later acted to grant compensation payments to the Downwinders. To date, the government has approved 8,744 claims from residents who have been able to prove their cancers were caused by the radioactive fallout.
    Models of fallout from the Nevada tests show that Cannon's district includes several of the counties that had the highest radiation exposure in the country.
    Cannon says he believes his own father died of cancers that were caused in part by his exposure to radioactive fallout from the tests.
    "Cannon's statement was ignorant, out-of-touch with his constituents and out of step with the rest of the Utah delegation," said Vanessa Pierce of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.
    She said a National Academy of Sciences study said there is no evidence that the nuclear weapons stockpile needs to be tested. Furthermore, the Energy Department has reported that half of its underground nuclear weapons tests released some radiation into the surrounding environment.
    "We cannot, in good conscience, put Utahns at risk for another accident again. It is unconscionable," she said. "His views are so radically different from those of the people that he represents that it's just unfathomable."
    Cannon says he believes any nuclear tests can be conducted safely and is committed to making sure there are protections in place. "With nuclear testing you have to be very careful," he said.
    Cannon also said he sees no contradiction in the United States' determination to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons or preventing North Korea's program to develop further and to resume domestic nuclear tests.
    "Democracies don't create wars. Evil people who assume positions of power create wars," he said. America has defended freedom, he said, not created wars.