The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act ("the Act" or “RECA”), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 2210 note which provides for compassionate payments to, or on behalf of, individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases following exposure to radiation that was released during above-ground nuclear weapons testing or following exposure to radiation during employment in uranium mines, mills, or in the transportation of uranium or vanadium-uranium ore.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Program (the "Radiation Program"), part of the Constitutional and Specialized Torts Litigation section of the Civil Division’s Torts Branch, is the office responsible for administering the Act. The Act’s implementing regulations, set forth at 28 C.F.R. Part 79, establish procedures designed to utilize existing records so that claims can be resolved quickly in a reliable, objective, nonadversarial manner with little administrative cost to the United States or to the person filing the claim. The Radiation Program follows these procedures to develop the administrative record and issue a decision awarding or denying entitlement to compensation under the Act.

[updated April 2018]