Commemoration of Trinity Atomic Bomb Test Will Be Held Saturday, July 18th at the Tularosa Little League Field at 8 pm

CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 7/17/15 through 7/24/15

(THEME UP AND UNDER) This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. Here is this week’s top headline:

·      Commemoration of Trinity Atomic Bomb Test Will Be Held Saturday, July 18^th at the Tularosa Little League Field at 8 pm

In the early morning of July 16, 1945, the U.S. government dropped the first atomic bomb from a 100-foot metal structure in the south central desert of New Mexico, called Jornada del Muerto, or Journey of Death. In the massive explosion, the radiation and toxic materials rose an estimated 70,000 feet and began to fall back to earth in what many thought was snow.  The kids played in it, the cattle and vegetable gardens were covered in it, and later that night when it rained, the water cisterns were contaminated with radioactive and toxic particles.

The innocent people of the Tularosa Basin were not informed beforehand and were not evacuated after the test, even though the exposures were at least 10,000 times higher than the safe radiation levels of the time.  Cancer rates in the Tularosa Basin are four to eight times higher than the national average.  For more information, please see Chapter 10 “The Trinity Test” of the 2010 Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment Report at http://www.lahdra.org/pubs/Final%20LAHDRA%20Report%202010.pdf

To memorialize those who have died and to honor those who are living with or who have survived cancer, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, in cooperation with the Village of Tularosa, will host the Sixth Annual Candlelight Vigil on Saturday, July 18^th from 8 to 10 pm in Tularosa, New Mexico, at the Tularosa Little League Field, on La Luz Avenue, west of the Tularosa High School. Everyone is invited to attend.

Luminarias will be available for a small donation beginning at 7:30 pm.   They will be lit in memory of those who have died and those living with or who have survived cancer and other radiation-related illnesses.

In 2005, the Consortium formed to ensure that those exposed to the Trinity test receive compensation under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). The act first passed in 1990 to provide compensation and medical care to those exposed to above ground nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands and the Nevada Test Site.  For five years, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall has introduced amendments that would include the Trinity downwinders and certain uranium miners in New Mexico.

On July 1^st, Senator Udall attended a Consortium meeting in Tularosa at which eight survivors told their stories before an audience of 200. After hearing their passionate stories, Senator Udall renewed his commitment to ensure passage of the RECA amendments.

Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the Consortium, said, “Please join us at the Sixth Annual Candlelight Vigil in Tularosa. It will be a peaceful opportunity to reflect on all that we’ve lost and the work ahead of us to achieve justice.”

For more information and to volunteer, please contact Tina Cordova at 505-897-6787, or tcordova@queston.net.

This has been the CCNS News Update. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org and our Facebook page.

Tags: Jornada del Muerto, LAHDRA, Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, RECA, Senator Tom Udall, TBDC, Tina Cordova, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium