Today marks the 75th anniversary of the United States’ nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Survivors of those attacks and of the next few decades of testing and nuclear weapons production are still here. But so are the weapons. You can be part of the solution to ensure nuclear weapons are never used again.
I hope you will also join the national commemoration event, livestreaming August 6 and 9. You can see the full schedule online — please share this link with your friends! I also urge you to join in and follow along the discussion on social media using the hashtag #stillhere.
7/12 – 7/13 Albuquerque Journal two-part series on the Manhattan Project and Its Legacy
7/13/20 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, USA (WILPF US) sponsored webinar: “Radioactive New Mexico, From Trinity to Now.” https://youtu.be/9nfZNRXfAaM?t=347
6:00 pm Mass live streamed from vigil site, F. Simon Carlan, OSF
7:00 pm Invitation to pray and reflect, repeated on the hour
20 minutes to say the Rosary
20 minutes of silence and/or bring your own spiritual practice
20 minutes of video excerpts from topics on the creation and detonation of the first nuclear bomb in history
This hourly cycle is repeated at the top of every hour rotating the Mysteries of the Rosary, silent time, and the video content up to Detonation Time. The cycle resumes at 6:00 am after the observance of Detonation Time.
Th. 7/16
5:00 am Detonation Time Preparation and Countdown
5:29:45 am Detonation Time, Detonation Observance, Song & Prayer
6:00 pm Mass live streamed from vigil site, Fr. Simon Carian, OSF
Th. 7/16 9 am MDT – Trinity Downwinders: 75 Years and Still Waiting, zoom event of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/
11 am MDT – Global Online Launch of the first Uranium Atlas: Facts and Data about the Raw Material of the Atomic Age – Leave Uranium in the Ground. www.rosalux.de/livestream
Sun. 8/2 3 pm MDT – Veterans for Peace Virtual 2020 Convention New Mexico Plenary with Tina Cordova, TBDC, and Joni Arends, CCNS https://vfp2020.attendease.com/
Sun. 8/9 4 pm MDT – “The Bomb: Understanding its History and the Hope for a Nuclear-Free Future,” with James Nolan, author of Atomic Doctors, at City Lights Bookstore webinar. http://www.citylights.com/info/?fa=event&event_id=3666
4 pm MDT – Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom USA (WILPF US) “ One Sunny Day, Remembering Hiroshima” webinar featuring author and Hiroshima survivor, Dr. Hideko Tamura Snider. https://www.vtwilpfgathering.com/8-9-zoom
And check out the WILPF US 75th Anniversary Timeline to discover information about key events in 1945, which was the year both the United Nations and nuclear weapons were created.
This week is the 65th Anniversary of the launch of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto that called for global patriotism. On July 9, 1955, the short document composed by Lord Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein argued that nuclear weapons put the human species at risk. Since no one wishes for the human race to disappear, it proposed that the world needed an agreement not to go to war. The Manifesto asks, “What steps can be taken to prevent a military contest … [that] must be disastrous to all parties?” https://pugwash.org/1955/07/09/statement-manifesto/ and reading of the Manifesto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSvjr44FqXU
The first step, according to Russell and Einstein, is for us to set aside our political opinions about issues that lead to conflicts, whether at the level of nation, continent or creed and instead consider ourselves “only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history.” They say, “We have to learn to think in a new way.” That is, instead of planning for a military victory, we must work toward prevention of armed conflict.
Russell and Einstein point out that sometimes the language people use makes them resist the idea that we must totally prevent nuclear war. They use the vague phrase of “a threat to mankind” or “to the human race,” instead of undertanding that “they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly.”
Russell and Einstein propose that we must also think in a new way about the damage from nuclear weapons. While the Manifesto grants that a general reduction in stockpiles of arms serves an important purpose, such as has been accomplished by nuclear arms control treaties in the 65 years since the Manifesto, it insists that we move to a more universal position and demand that our conflicts not be decided by war. In 1955, Russell and Einstein knew that a single bomb could be “2,500 times as powerful as that which destroyed Hiroshima” and that lethal radioactive particles “sink gradually and reach…the earth in the form of a deadly dust or rain,” leading to widespread disease and death.
Russell and Einsein appeal to us as human beings to “remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise, if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.”
2. Monday, July 20th – Comments due to NRC about their proposal to allow for disposal of radioactive waste in municipal landfills. The latest proposal is called “Very Low-Level Radioactive” (VLLR) Waste. In the mid-1990s it was called “Below Regulatory Concern,” or BRC. A sample public comment you can use is here. VLLW Comments due 7-20-20Please submit to: VLLWTransferComments.Resource@nrc.gov
3. Sunday, August 2nd to Sunday, August 9th – virtual National Convention of Veterans for Peace.The convention theme is “Human Rights over Nuclear Might.” The New Mexico plenary will take place on Sunday, August 2nd in mid-afternoon. Stay tuned for details. To learn more about VFP’s National Convention, go to: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/2020-annual-convention
4. Thursday, August 6th at 8 pm EST; 6 pm MST; 5 pm PST –75th Commemoration Hiroshima Day Live One-Hour Online Webinar, hosted by the New Mexico 75th Commemoration of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene. CCNS is an organizer and co-sponsor of the event. The webinar is free. Please register or check the website closer to the event date for more information. https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020
The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will commemorate those who have lost their lives due to overexposure to high levels of ionizing radiation from the first atomic bomb test in south central New Mexico. The U.S. Government exploded the Trinity plutonium bomb on the morning of Monday, July 16th, 1945, at 5:29 am, at what is now known as the White Sands Missile Range. The damage done has yet to be recognized by the U.S. Government.
The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, also known as the Trinity Downwinders, are hosting the memorial event on Thursday, July 16th, beginning at 5:20 am to commemorate those who have lost their lives. It will take place outside at Civic Plaza in downtown Albuquerque. The event will be live streamed. For more information, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/ .
At 5:29 am, they will acknowledge the dropping of the bomb 75 years ago. After introductory remarks, the names of those who have lost their lives will be read with musical interludes.
At 9 am, Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales and other dignitaries will join and provide comments.
If you would like to add the name of family members or friends who have lost their lives as a result of overexposure to the Trinity test, please email the Trinity Downwinders at info@trinitydownwinders.com before Monday, July 13th.
The Trinity bomb was the first bomb of its kind. It was over packed with 13 pounds of weapons grade plutonium. When it was exploded, only three pounds fissioned and the other 10 pounds were distributed into the environment and into the bodies of people and animals. Because the test took place on a 100-foot tall tower, the force of the blast enveloped the vegetation, sand, and dirt, and took it up into the fireball that rose over seven miles into the stratosphere. The plume stratified, dividing into layers and moving at different heights and in different directions over the desert of New Mexico, dropping radioactive fallout as it moved. One can picture the stratifications if you recall how the hot air balloons move through the “box” during the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
As a result of the damage that was done, the U.S. Government began creating its false narrative about the test. Scientists and officials at Project Y, the name of Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project where the bomb was fabricated, said the impacted area was “remote and uninhabited.” Nevertheless, U.S. Census data from 1940 indicate that tens of thousands of people lived, farmed, hunted, and raised families within a 50-mile radius of the test.
2. Monday, July 20th – Comments due to NRC about their proposal to allow for disposal of radioactive waste in municipal landfills.The latest proposal is called “Very Low-Level Radioactive” (VLLR) Waste. In the mid-1990s it was called “Below Regulatory Concern,” or BRC. A sample public comment you can use is here. VLLW Comments due 7-20-20 Please submit to: VLLWTransferComments.Resource@nrc.gov
3. Sunday, August 2nd to Sunday, August 9th – virtual National Convention of Veterans for Peace.The convention theme is “Human Rights over Nuclear Might.” The New Mexico plenary will take place on Sunday, August 2nd in mid-afternoon. Stay tuned for details. To learn more about VFP’s National Convention, go to: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/2020-annual-convention
4. Thursday, August 6th at 8 pm EST; 6 pm MST; 5 pm PST –75th Commemoration Hiroshima Day Live One-Hour Online Webinar,hosted by the New Mexico 75th Commemoration of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene. CCNS is an organizer and co-sponsor of the event. The webinar is free. Please register or check the website closer to the event date for more information. https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020
On Tuesday, June 23rd, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a webinar and invited telephone comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a nuclear waste storage facility that Holtec proposes to build halfway between Carlsbad and Hobbs. Holtec applied for a license to store all of the nation’s most radioactive spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. Over twenty years, Holtec proposes to ship 10,000 canisters to the site by railroads, passing through more than forty states. https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/cis/holtec-international.html, scroll down to Environmental Impact Statement.
In 2012, officials in Eddy and Lea counties announced that a private company would submit a license application in March 2013. In December 2015, Holtec told the NRC that it would submit the license application in June 2016, so that the facility could begin operating in 2020. The application was submitted in March 2017, and stated that NRC’s license would be issued in 2019 and that construction would begin by March 2020. https://wethefourth.org/
The webinar was the first comment meeting on the DEIS. Many commenters requested that, because of the pandemic, face-to-face meetings be held after the discovery of a vaccine. For five and a-half hours, people from more than a dozen states weighed the benefits to New Mexico of waste storage against its potential hazards and considered what it would mean for the state.
To learn more about the Holtec DEIS and the second NRC webinar on Thursday, July 9th, starting at 3 pm MDT (you have to register beforehand to speak), check out the materials prepared by the Nuclear Issues Study Group (NISG), with talking points from Sierra Club and NISG, as well as the NRC’s powerpoint presentation at https://mailchi.mp/eafed8a467ac/call-to-action-holtec-public-meeting-today-online-at-3pm-mdt
Many commenters noted that the DEIS does not adequately address transportation in New Mexico or nationwide, since it states: “Because no arrangements regarding which nuclear power plants will ship [waste]…the details regarding the specific routes that would be used also are not known at this time.” See the April 14, 2017 Update for a listing of transportation maps. http://nuclearactive.org/nrc-extends-public-comment-period-for-high-level-irradiated-waste-storage-at-wcs-to-april-28th/
Many commenters stated that the storage could be permanent because there is no disposal site. They reminded the NRC that this is why the law requires that a permanent repository be selected before the designation of an interim facility like Holtec, and this has not been done. They pointed out that the DEIS considers impacts for forty years, while Holtec plans to operate the facility for at least 120 years. Others noted that the DEIS rejected consideration of improved storage at or near the nuclear plants, so the only alternative considered was the Holtec site, even though the law requires consideration of all reasonable alternatives.
Many commenters, reflecting on racial and environmental justice, felt that New Mexico, as one of the poorest states in the nation, is being considered a “throwaway” state for waste that others don’t want. Both James Kenney, Secretary of the Environment Department, and Sarah Cottrell Propst, Secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, found the DEIS technically inadequate for many reasons and reiterated that Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham strongly opposes the project. NM Governor Holtec Ltr 060719
Do You Know about the Upcoming Commemoration Events for Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
1. Thursday, July 16th Commemoration of the July 16, 1945 – first atomic bomb test at the Trinity site in southcentral New Mexico. Details will be available soon. https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/
2. Sunday, August 2nd to Sunday, August 9th – virtual National Convention of Veterans for Peace. The convention theme is “Human Rights over Nuclear Might.” The New Mexico plenary will take place on Sunday, August 2nd in mid-afternoon. Stay tuned for details. To learn more about VFP’s National Convention, go to: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/2020-annual-convention
3. Thursday, August 6th at 8 pm EST; 6 pm MST; 5 pm PST –75th Commemoration Hiroshima Day Live One-Hour Online Webinar,hosted by the New Mexico 75th Commemoration of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene. CCNS is an organizer and co-sponsor of the event. The webinar is free. Please register or check the website closer to the event date for more information. https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020
In 2018, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held five public meetings throughout New Mexico about the environmental analysis for the proposed Holtec facility because it plans to store high-level radioactive waste in the southeastern corner of the state. Packed meetings were held in Albuquerque, Carlsbad, Gallup, Hobbs, and Roswell about what issues would be included in the required environmental impact statement. NRC’s draft statement is out now for public review. Comments are due by Wednesday, July 22nd. https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/cis/holtec-international.html, scroll down to Environmental Impact Statement. The Albuquerque-based Nuclear Issues Study Group (NISG) has prepared a sample letter SampleCommentLetter061820 and …
Remember to add your personal comments in Paragraph 2 and sign your name at the end.
But the NRC will have to extend the comment period because it has made a commitment to hold five public meetings in New Mexico, but has not yet done so.
At the beginning of the global pandemic, the five members of the New Mexico congressional delegation requested extensions of the public comment period from the NRC. The Congressional delegation wrote: “Allowing for full public participation, as [the National Environmental Policy Act] requires, is particularly important for projects involving nuclear waste. Any proposal to store commercial spent nuclear fuel raises a number of health, safety and environmental issues, including potential impacts on local agriculture and industry, issues related to the transportation of nuclear waste, and disproportionate impacts on Native American communities.” NM delegation on DEIS extension
The NRC Chairwoman responded stating the NRC staff would hold “a national webinar and five public meetings in New Mexico during the public comment period” to present its preliminary findings and receive public comments.
She continued, “As the COVID-19 public health emergency evolves, the NRC staff will continue to re-evaluate these plans for engaging the public, and will consider whether additional extensions to the comment period are warranted.” 04-21-20 Ltr to Honorable Martin Heinrich frm NRC Chrm Svinicki
Holtec International proposes to bring as much as 173,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent plutonium fuel from commercial nuclear power plants to a massive consolidated interim storage facility located half way between Carlsbad and Hobbs. This waste is more than twice the amount of spent fuel currently stored at U.S. nuclear power plants. Holtec must obtain an NRC license to construct such a facility. The draft statement is part of that process.
To operate the facility, Holtec expects the federal government will take legal title of the waste and pay for storage and transportation costs. Beyond Nuclear, a Maryland based non-governmental organization, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, challenging the legality of Holtec’s application. http://www.beyondnuclear.org/news/ The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act does not allow the federal government to take title to the waste until a permanent underground repository is operating. Yucca Mountain was supposed to be that repository, but it was stopped in 2010 due to underlying geologic issues. http://www.beyondnuclear.org/
Please note: On Tuesday, June 23rd, beginning at 3 pm MST, the NRC will hold a public online webinar about the draft environmental impact statement for the Proposed Holtec Consolidated Interim Storage Facility. This meeting is not a substitute for the five public meetings in New Mexico the NRC has committed to. To make public comments during the webinar, you must pre-register by Monday, June 22d by contacting Ms. Antoinette Walker Smith via email to: Antoinette.Walker-Smith@nrc.govNRC 6-23-20 Holtec DEIS Public Mtg
1. Saturday, June 20th and Sunday, June 21st – A digital justice gathering of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival: The Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington. Livestsream on Saturday, June 20th at 10 am and 6 pm EST (8 am and 4 pm MST), and again on Sunday, June 21st at 6 pm EST (4 pm EST). https://www.june2020.org/
2. Tuesday, June 23rd, beginning at 3 pm MST, the NRC will hold a public online webinar about the draft environmental impact statement for the Proposed Holtec Consolidated Interim Storage Facility. This meeting is not a substitute for the five public meetings in New Mexico the NRC has committed to. In order to make public comments at the webinar, you must pre-register by Monday, June 22d by contacting Ms. Antoinette Walker Smith via email to: Antoinette.Walker-Smith@nrc.govNRC 6-23-20 Holtec DEIS Public Mtg
The Albuquerque-based Nuclear Issues Study Group (NISG) has prepared an online sample letter SampleCommentLetter061820 and …
Click SHORTCUT TO SEND COMMENTS NOW!! for a quick email shortcut to send to your comments to NRC TODAY!
Remember to add your personal comments in Paragraph 2 and sign your name at the end.
In a May 29, 2020 Report, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board identifies four significant safety items that are unresolved at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The items are related to the various accident scenarios the Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractor, the Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC, chose to analyze and mitigate. In some cases, the contractor asked that accident scenarios be removed from consideration, and DOE agreed. Nevertheless, the ever-watchful independent Board continues to request improved safety measures. https://www.dnfsb.gov/documents/letters/wipp-dsa-review
WIPP, located 2,150 feet below ground in salt formations, is a dump for plutonium-contaminated waste materials from manufacturing nuclear weapons. The waste contains long-lived radionuclides and other hazardous materials, so that every five years, DOE must certify to the Environmental Protection Agency that WIPP will not leak for 10,000 years. https://wipp.energy.gov/
The Board is concerned about repeat explosive events, such as the one that occurred on February 14, 2014 when one or more waste containers exploded underground. The waste originated at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was not properly characterized. http://www.sric.org/nuclear/wippleak2014.php The Board is concerned that WIPP still does not believe that the characterization process can fail, even though it has. The Board urges WIPP to reinstate the continuous air monitoring system that detects and responds to possible failures in the waste characterization process.
Another accident scenario involves a fire at the bottom of the shaft where a hoist carries waste from the surface to the underground. Currently, there is no restriction on transporting a 300-gallon fuel tank on the waste hoist. DOE could simply resolve the issue by prohibiting the transport of the fuel tank on the waste hoist. A smaller salt hoist can transport the fuel tank.
A related scenario is “overtraveling” of the waste hoist at the top of the shaft, creating damage to the ropes, which could result in its dropping to the bottom of the shaft. DOE says that installation of a controller and brake system would prevent the upward movement.
Roof falls in the underground have been of concern since the 1980s when WIPP was constructed. Once an area is opened up for waste disposal, slabs of salt can fall from the ceiling. DOE maintains the roofs with roof bolts that secure wire sheeting across the room ceilings. In rooms open for waste disposal, there is a possibility of a roof fall across the entire length of the room. The Board recommends safety controls, such as the ventilation system, to mitigate this danger.
2. Saturday, June 20th – the digital and social media gathering of the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington. To learn more, go to https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june2020/
5. Friday, July 31st comments due to EPA about two LANL discharge permits.
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EPA extended the public comment periods for 60 more days for the Individual Stormwater Permit and Industrial Wastewater (outfalls) Permit. A virtual public meeting on the Individual Stormwater Permit will be held in July. https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/notices-search/location/New%20Mexico Sample public comments will be available before the deadline.
According to a new report by the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, the U.S. spent $35.4 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019. This figure includes $11.1 billion to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy, and $24.3 billion to the Department of Defense. That amount equals spending $67,352 every minute of 2019 on nuclear weapons. In this time of the global COVID-19 pandemic, some question whether these taxpayers’ dollars could fund the needed masks, gloves, personal protective equipment and other equipment for medical professionals and patients, as well as for essential workers across the country. https://www.icanw.org/global_nuclear_weapons_spending_2020
The report, entitled, “Enough is Enough: 2019 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending,” carefully reviewed the nuclear weapons budgets of nine nuclear-armed countries. They are: China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. In 2019, the nine countries spent $72.9 billion on the weapons. Together, the countries possess more than 13,000 nuclear weapons and spent $138,699 every minute of 2019 on them. This $72.9 billion represents an increase of $7.1 billion from 2018.
But these billions of dollars spent in the U.S. and the other nine nuclear-armed countries are not the total expenditures. They pay for only the operating and development costs for nuclear warhead and nuclear-capable delivery systems. They do not include the cleanup, or remediation, of the environment contaminated by the operation, use, and development of nuclear weapons, nor do they include the health care and compensation needed by the unknowing and unwilling victims harmed by the production and use of nuclear weapons.
A 2011 Global Zero cost estimate stated that “unpaid/deferred environmental and health costs, missile [defenses] assigned to defend against nuclear weapons, nuclear threat reduction and incident management” would add 50 percent more dollars. GZ Nuclear Weapons Cost Global Study 2011 If included, in 2019, the U.S. would have spent approximately $53 billion, or $101,000 a minute.
Alicia Sanders-Zakre, the Policy and Research Coordinator for the ICAN and the primary author of the report, said, “The billions spent on nuclear weapons in 2019 didn’t save lives – it was a waste of resources needed to address real security challenges, including pandemics and climate change.”
The report concludes with a question we all need to answer: “Will citizens and leaders choose to continue to throw away $73 billion on nuclear weapons, or will they join the majority of the world’s countries in choosing to ban these weapons of mass destruction all together?”
Tuesday, June 9th from 5 to 7 pm – Midtown Santa Fe “Meet the Developer Series” continues. The topic has changed to Arts and Innovation. The topic Housing and Affordability has been rescheduled to June 23rd. Residents may attend the meetings virtually at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKPVlxk0l-IyxAVEPs2ig0w. The chat function will be enabled for your questions and comments. If you would like to submit a question(s) before the meeting, email info@midtowndistrictsantafe.com. For more information, visit https://www.santafenm.gov/midtown_site
Friday, July 31st comments due to EPA about two LANL discharge permits.EPA extended the public comment periods for 60 more days for the Individual Stormwater Permit and Industrial Wastewater (outfalls) Permit. A virtual public meeting on the Individual Stormwater Permit will be held in July. https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/notices-search/location/New%20Mexico Sample public comments will be available before the deadline.
In a perverse strategy to bring Russia and China to the table to negotiate a tri-lateral agreement to limit nuclear arsenals, the White House is in on-going internal discussions about restarting nuclear weapons testing. The last U.S. underground nuclear explosive test was in 1992, at what was then called the Nevada Test Site. Between 1945 and 1992, radioactive and toxic fallout from its 1,000-plus atmospheric and underground tests fell across New Mexico and across other states. See “Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing,” by Richard L. Miller.
In 1996, the U.S. signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), an international agreement to ban all nuclear explosives tests. It provides for verification and on-site inspections. But the U.S., along with seven other countries, failed to ratify the Treaty. http://www.nuclearactive.org/news/031210.html
Although the Treaty has not entered into full force and for that reason the verification and inspections provisions are not in effect, only North Korea has tested.
On Saturday, May 23rd, U.S. Senator Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, wrote to the President to “oppose in the strongest possible terms a historically reckless resumption of explosive nuclear weapons testing.” He urged the President to use “superior alternatives,“ including leading “a diplomatic effort to bring the CTBT into force, [which] would allow for the intrusive, short-notice, and on-site inspections that are the most effective way to enforce compliance.” Senator Markey is working to introduce legislation to prohibit new nuclear testing and to bring the Treaty into force. https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-demands-trump-administration-abandon-reckless-restart-of-us-nuclear-weapons-testing
A discussion to restart nuclear weapons testing inevitably triggers those who have been harmed from cumulative overexposure to radioactive and toxic fallout. They are called Downwinders, and there are thousands of New Mexicans who were exposed to the first nuclear weapons test on July 16, 1945, at the Trinity Site and to fallout from the Nevada Test Site.
In 1990, Congress created the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), a program to provide compensation to some of Downwinders in other states, but not the New Mexico Downwinders. LCN May 28, 2020 PLEASE REFERENCE PAGE 6 FOR “COVID-19 STRIKES NM ON THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MANHATTAN PROJECT,” SUBMITTED BY BERNICE J. GUTIERREZ AND PAUL LOPEZ PINO.
Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, which has been working for 15 years to include the New Mexico Downwinders in RECA, said, “It’s been 75 years since the people of New Mexico were enlisted into the service of their country as participants in the first nuclear test anyplace in the world. The U.S. government has never recognized this or taken care of the devastating health consequences that developed as a result. Why would we ever think that testing today would yield a different result from the government? Who would want the testing to take place near where they live and raise their families? This just can’t happen again.” https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/
