Plans to Commemorate Two New Mexico Atomic Events – Trinity and Church Rock
In this week’s Update CCNS provides information about the upcoming commemorations of two harmful atomic events that both occurred in New Mexico on July 16th. The first is the 80th commemoration of the plutonium bomb test at the Trinity Test Site on July 16, 1945 at the White Sands Missile Range.
The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, a group seeking justice for the harms downwinders have suffered through the generations from exposures to the Trinity Test, is sponsoring three occasions of commemoration on Wednesday, July 16th. The day begins with the dedication of a permanent sign at the Stallion Gate Entrance to the White Sands Missile Range; then there will be a mass and dinner reception at the St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa; and last comes the 16th Annual Candlelight Vigil at the Tularosa Veterans Park.
The Candlelight Vigil will be livestreamed. The link will be posted closer to the July 16th date.
For more information, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/
The second event is the 46th anniversary of the Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill on July 16th, 1979 on the Navajo Nation. The Red Water Pond Road Community invites you to attend a historic commemoration on Saturday, July 19th from 6 am to 4 pm, 12 miles north of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566. Breakfast and lunch will be provided under a shaded arbor. After opening prayers, a walk to the spill location will take place. There will also be speakers, educational tables, and a silent auction.
In 1968, the United Nuclear Corporation began mining operations in the largest underground uranium mine in the United States. Mining wastes were disposed of in three lined lagoons behind a dam that United Nuclear Corporation and state and federal agencies knew was subject to failure. When, on July 16th, the dam was breached, 1,100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water flowed into and contaminated about 80 miles of the Rio Puerco. Many Navajos relied on the Puerco River for living and watering livestock. Uranium workers, their families and others have suffered for decades because of the unremediated radioactive and chemical spill.
For more information, please visit https://swuraniumimpacts.org/
These are but two of the many upcoming commemorative events to remember those harmed by the atomic industries.
- Thursday, June 26th from 4 to 5 pm MT –
Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a training webinar on how to submit a comment to ensure NNSA fully considers the public and environmental risks that come with planned expanded plutonium pit production.
Comment periods help increase transparency to the public, and it is crucial that the NNSA and the US Department of Energy hear from scientists, experts, and community members like you. See UCS’s 4-page fact sheet at: https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Plutonium%20Pit%20Production_ES.pdf
Training webinar registration at: https://secure.ucs.org/a/2025-6-26-peis-comment-training-2
- Friday, June 27th from noon to 1 pm –
Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.
- Watch the “Television Event”
2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week during about nuclear war during the Reagan administration.
- Thursday, July 10th from 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm ET; 10:30 am to 3:30 pm MT
– From Trinity to Today: Nuclear Weapons and the Way Forward, a hybrid event hosted by the Arms Control Association and Win Without War. Registration is required to attend. You can register to attend in-person or on-line
The Arms Control Association and Win Without War invite you to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic age through a three panel series that highlights the impacts of the bomb and showcases the role citizen campaigns have had in changing the course of nuclear history.
Join one or all the three panel series:
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- Toxic and Radioactive Legacy of Nuclear Use, Production, Testing
- The Role of Citizens in Reducing the Nuclear Danger
- Today’s Nuclear Dangers/Consequences of Nuclear War
For more information and registration: https://www.armscontrol.org/From_Trinity_to_Today
- Friday, July 11th from 6 pm MT to Saturday, July 12th to 6 pm
– Fourth Annual 24-hour Peace Wave – addressing the need to abolish nuclear weapons. Peace Wave is a 24-hour long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. The Peace Wave visits dozens of location around the globe and includes rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installations of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety.
To sign up to watch Peace Wave, to embed the sign-up on your website, to watch the past three years’ peace waves, and to answer most questions, go to https://24hourpeacewave.org To discuss including your live event in the Peace Wave, email info@worldbeyondwar.org
- Saturday, July 12th at 6:30 pm
at Congregation Nahalat Shalom, 3606 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Albuquerque. – Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub Kickoff. This free, community-wide event marks the official launch of New Mexico’s involvement in the national Back from the Brink campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. Doors open at 6:00 pm. All are welcome.
The evening will feature compelling speakers dedicated to nuclear disarmament and justice, including:
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- Eddie Laiche, steering committee member of Students for Nuclear Disarmament, a national, non-partisan, student-led organization seeking to develop the grassroots nuclear abolition movement through high school and college students
- Ira Helfand, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Immediate Past President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and member of the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
- Myrriah Gomez, UNM professor and author of Nuclear Nuevo Mexico: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos
- Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and tire less advocate working to secure healthcare coverage and partial restitution for the people of New Mexico who have suffered from the negative health effects of overexposure to radiation since 1945.
Together they will highlight the urgent need for action and the power of communities to create a world free from nuclear threats.
Registration – https://www.mobilize.us/backfromthebrink/event/804539/
- Sunday, July 13th –
Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test: 80 Years and Still Waiting – doors open at 2 pm and event starts at 2:30 to 5 pm, at St. Pius X School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM. 80 year ago the U.S. government did not warn New Mexicans about the atomic bomb Trinity Test. To this day, downwinders of the first atomic bomb test have never been acknowledged or compensated. Today we are locked in a second nuclear arms race and again New Mexico plays a crucial role. It is long overdue that the nuclear powers honor their promises in international treaties to rid the world of the most dangerous weapons.
Free event — all are welcome, pre-registration is encouraged. RSVP here.
- Monday, July 14th –
public comments due to NNSA about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production.
- Wednesday, July 16th
– 80th Anniversary of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico. Visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/ for more information.
- Wednesday, July 16th at 5 pm MT
– Trinity Day 80th Anniversary Zoom Event, hosted by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Disarm Committee and the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee – for a teach-in on Trinity Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test. Register here: https://bit.ly/Trinity80th
Panelists include: Hideko Tamura, a Hiroshima survivor and a leader of WILPF; Tina Cordova, founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium; Mary Yakaitis, a leader of the Downwinders; Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research; and Professor Peter Kuznick, Director of the American University Nuclear Studies Institute. Following the presentations there will be a general discussion.
Trinity laid the groundwork for the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for the ensuing nuclear arms race that has repeatedly, and once again, brought the World to the precipice of nuclear annihilation.
As we face yet another nuclear crisis, we will discuss the meaning of the Trinity Test and its implications for today.
Please distribute this invitation widely. As the Anti Nuclear Movement again mobilizes to meet this latest crisis, it is important that we be fully informed.
In Peace and Solidarity,
John Steinbach & Ellen Thomas https://www.wilpf.org/
- Saturday, July 19th –
46th Anniversary of United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill. For more information, visit https://swuraniumimpacts.org/
Tags: Candlelight Vigil, Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill, July 16th atomic events, navajo nation, plutonium bomb, Red Water Pond Road Community, Rio Puerco, Trinity Test, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, United Nuclear Corporation, white sands missile range
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