Groups push to remove proposed funding for nuclear testing
Source: Associated Press
Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Updated 6:18 pm CDT, Friday, July 24, 2020
Photo: File, AP
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FILE - This July 16, 1945 photo, shows an aerial view after the first atomic explosion at Trinity Test Site, N.M. A defense spending bill pending in Congress includes an apology to New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and other states affected by nuclear testing over the decades, but communities downwind from the first atomic test in 1945 are still holding out for compensation amid rumblings about the potential for the U.S. to resume nuclear testing.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Deep within a multibillion-dollar defense spending measure pending in Congress is an apology to New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and other states affected by radiation from nuclear testing over the decades.
But communities downwind from the first atomic test in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, are still holding out for compensation for health effects that they say have been ongoing for generations due to fallout from the historic blast.
So far, their pleas for Congress to extend and expand a federal radiation compensation program have gone unanswered. The program currently covers workers who became sick as a result of the radiation hazards of their jobs and those who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site.
Those excluded from the program include residents downwind of the Trinity Site in New Mexico, additional downwinders in Nevada, veterans who cleaned up radioactive waste in the Marshall Islands and others.
Tina Cordova, a cancer survivor and co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said the excuse always has been that the federal government doesn't have enough money to take care of those affected.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Groups-push-to-remove-proposed-funding-for-15432766.php
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whose lives have been ravaged by COVID19. Millions soon to face EVICTION/HOMELESSNESS. But hey PRIORITIES people! Trump wants to see "BIG BOOMS" in the Nevada desert. "Make America GLOW Again"!
