The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Arthur H. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. For NPR News, I'm Nate Hegyi in Carrizozo, N.M.Ĭopyright © 2023 NPR. HEGYI: The latest iteration of the bill was introduced in the Senate in May. LUJAN: What I'll tell them is, go look at our constituents in the eyes and tell them that their lives or their parent's lives or kid's lives don't matter and that it's too expensive to care for them. Lujan pushes back on critics of the amendment. spends nearly 10 times that maintaining its nuclear arsenal. HEGYI: The government estimates the amendment would cost about $5 billion a year. He has repeatedly introduced legislation in Congress that would amend the act, but it never passes.īEN RAY LUJAN: Many of my colleagues that do not support these efforts say that it's - it costs too much money. HEGYI: Cordova has the ear of New Mexico Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan. And those American citizens need to be acknowledged and taken care of. territories as well who were exposed to fallout from nuclear explosions between 19.ĬORDOVA: The bottom line is American citizens, human beings in the American West, including New Mexico, were horribly harmed because of our government's pursuit of nuclear superiority. HEGYI: Cordova wants the act greatly expanded to include not only victims of the Trinity test but cancer patients in other states in U.S. But right now, it only covers a few counties in the southwest that were exposed to fallout from other tests in Nevada in the 1950s and '60s.ĬORDOVA: How is it that we were left out when we were the very first people exposed to radiation as a result of an atomic bomb? It was established in 1990 to provide a $50,000 payment to radiogenic cancer patients who lived downwind of nuclear tests. She wants Congress to do that by amending the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Like Pino, she grew up downwind of the Trinity test and is leading an effort to get the federal government to provide restitution for cancer patients and their families there. TINA CORDOVA: When are we going to hold our government accountable for testing a nuclear device in our backyard? PINO: Like, if you were on the rack and getting stretched or those medieval things they used to do to torture people - she went through that, like, every day because of cancer. Hundreds in the area have since been diagnosed with radiogenic cancers, including Pino's older brother and his mom. As late as the 1980s, government studies showed that people living in the fallout zone were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation. But the resulting fallout from the Trinity test burned the hair off cattle and covered the land in white dust. The federal government told locals at the time that it was just an ammo dump explosion, that there was no danger. PINO: Some people thought it was the end of the world, and they started praying like crazy, you know, to Santa Rita or whoever 'cause they thought, the sun's coming up on the wrong side of the world. The resulting explosion created a plume so big that it spread radioactive ash more than a hundred miles away, including on Carrizozo. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists tested the world's first atomic bomb. That was the codename for when, about 40 miles from here, J. HEGYI: Radiation that fell from the Trinity test. PAUL PINO: And for some of them, nothing could kill them but radiation. His mom and brothers 10 miles a day herding cattle. NATE HEGYI, BYLINE: Paul Pino grew up on his family's ranch near Carrizozo, N.M. Nate Hegyi from the public radio podcast Outside/In reports. They were harmed by radiation but have never been compensated. RASCOE: Amid all this publicity, those who live near where the bomb was tested back in 1945 in New Mexico are fighting to be heard. KENNETH BRANAGH: (As Niels Bohr) You're the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves, and the world is not prepared.

The physicist behind the creation of the atomic bomb is getting a lot of attention because of that big new Hollywood biopic, 'Oppenheimer.'

Atom bomb