Trinity Site Atomic Bomb Test Commemoration Set for Saturday, July 26th
CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 7/11/14 through 7/19/14
(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:
- Trinity Site Atomic Bomb Test Commemoration Set for Saturday, July 26th
The Fifth Annual Luminaria Lighting and Prayer Vigil will be held on Saturday, July 26th from 7 to 10 pm in Tularosa, New Mexico, in commemoration of the Trinity Site Atomic Bomb Test. In its first experimental test, the atomic bomb was exploded near Tularosa on July 16, 1945. This led to the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th of that same year. July 26, 2014 Trinity Event Flyer
The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, in cooperation with the Village of Tularosa, is organizing the public event, which will take place at the Tularosa Little League Field, off La Luz Avenue. Luminarias will be available for a small donation beginning at 7 pm. They will be lit in memory of those who have died from cancer and other illnesses related to exposure to the atomic bomb explosion.
The Consortium formed in order to be covered by the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which has provided other impacted communities downwind of the Nevada Test Site and for the Marshall Islanders with compensation. New Mexico Senator Tom Udall has led the effort to introduce amendments to RECA that would include the Trinity downwinders, and others in New Mexico.
In support of the commemoration, Senator Udall recently took to the Senate floor to deliver a speech about the Consortium and the importance of their work to support amending RECA. He said, “The original RECA bill required years of work on the ground. My father, [Stewart Udall], helped lay the groundwork for RECA a quarter century ago through his work with radiation exposure survivors and their families, compiling stories, records and histories of victims. The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium continues this critical work, and I encourage them to keep up the fight. This is a bipartisan effort and driven by simple fairness for American citizens who should have been helped, but were ignored instead. … It would also help post-1971 uranium workers to be eligible for compensation, and would fund a critical public health study of those who live and work in uranium development communities.” http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=new_media&type=videos&id=1703&#new_media_stage
Concerning the memorial event, Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the Consortium, said, “This year we will hold our fifth annual candlelight vigil in Tularosa to memorialize those who have lost their lives to cancer and other diseases associated with radiation exposure and honor those who have survived or are living with cancer. It will be a bittersweet evening because we will be missing the co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, Fred Tyler. I know Fred would want us to keep up the fight so in his memory we carry on”.
For more information and opportunities to volunteer, please contact Tina Cordova at 505-897-6787.
This has been the CCNS News Update. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org or our Facebook page.
Tags: 1945, Atomic Bomb Test, Fred Tyler, July 16, Luminaria Lighting and Prayer Vigil, Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, RECA, Senator Tom Udall, Tina Cordova, Trinity Site, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium
my father and mother, lived at oscuro range camp, as caretakers, of buildings, that were occupied by scientist,and technicians of the trinity site, my mother was careing me,this was in august 1945,for months he worked for the govrnment, they lived all there life in alamogordo,he was employed at holloman a.f.b. my father died cancer and mom,my wife from tularosa had kidney cancer survived. my father told me a secret,,,he was guarding trinity site-another bomb to be tested did not go off..hydrogen i believe so it was buried 1000 ft down, till 1965 did not have technology till 1965 if it had gone off fferedfit would destroy more states,we have suffured, hope we the children can get help.