NH #527: Trinity A-Bomb Test, Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill Anniversaries - Still Devastating New Mexico

Trinity A-Bomb – First photo of the birth of the Atomic Age: Trinity atomic bomb test blast on July 16, 1945.  Fallout from this "dirty bomb" is still harming Downwinders, who were exposed and are still exposed to the radiation.   

This Week’s Featured Interviews:

Trinity Downwinders advocating for justice:

• Trinity Downwinder Tina Cordova grew up in her family home in the Tularosa Basin, 40 miles from the explosion of the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. A cancer survivor like so many in her community, in 2005, she co-founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium.  She and her community have been working for compensation for New Mexico atomic downwinders for the past 15 years.
  

Trinity downwinder Tina Cordova (l) being interviewed by Nuclear Hotseat’s Libbe HaLevy

• Video produced by the long term victims of the Trinity atomic bomb blast, Tularosa Basin Consortion Downwinders:

https://youtu.be/VHZWiXGwdkQ

Church Rock Uranium Tailings Pond Spill Disaster

It's been 42 years since the July 16, 1979 uranium tailings pond spill/disaster that contaminated Navajo Nation land, adding to the radiation burden already there from abandoned uranium mines.  Two brief interviews from Nuclear Hotseat #423 from July 23, 2019, where Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy covered the 40th anniversary events.

• Edith Hood grew up in the Red Water Pond Road Community, on land which had her living between two uranium mines and just down the road from the 1979 tailings pond spill. Edith worked at a different mine than the UNC facility that had the accident, but faced all of the same dangers.
• Terracita Keyanna has lived her entire life in the Red Water Pond Road Community on Navajo Nation. She was not even born when the Church Rock uranium spill happened… but that did not stop her being exposed to uranium mining waste from what was released and deposited by the spill.

Edith Hood of the Red Water Pond Community on Navajo Nation land –
between two uranium mines and just down the road from the
site of the Church Rock uranium tailings spill

Terracita Keyanna next to sign warning “no uranium mining” in Navajo

Links Referenced in This Week's Show:

• Nuclear Hotseat #423: Church Rock Uranium Tailings Pond Disaster - full show.
• Piketon, Ohio Radiation Spikes from Demolition of Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant
• FirstEnergy to pay $230M in agreement in Ohio bribery case
• Nuclear Power's reliability is dropping as extreme weather increases.