SANTA FE, N.M.— Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) released the following statement honoring the Tularosa Basin downwinders on the 75th anniversary of the Trinity nuclear test. Udall has for years fought to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and provide compensation to all New Mexicans, Tribal members, and families throughout the country – including the Tularosa downwinders – affected by exposure to radiation during the Cold War.
“Let us mark this solemn anniversary by lifting up the voices and stories of the often-forgotten victims of our nation’s nuclear weapons program. Seventy-five years after the first nuclear bomb was detonated at Trinity, downwind communities in New Mexico are still bearing the steep cost of our government’s unwillingness to address the wrongs it committed against its own citizens in the name of national security. Far too many Tularosa Basin residents and southern New Mexico communities have suffered, lost their lives, or lost loved ones because of the radiation that contaminated the air, land and water.
“Our government should have warned residents that they were in the path of harmful radiation. Our government should have prevented communities from being touched by the radioactive debris that looked like snow, only to develop cancer. And, after Trinity, our government should have launched a serious, scientific effort to assess the harm done to downwind communities and their descendants. But in 1945 – and in the decades since – our government fell and continues to fall short. In 2020, we must do better.
“I’ve been proud to be in this fight for a long time, since the late 1970’s when my father, Stewart Udall, took up the cause of uranium miners, workers and downwinders. In the Courts and in Congress, we’ve fought to make whole all of those who fell victim to radiation exposure at the hands of their own government. And I won’t stop fighting until we get this done.
“It has been an immense privilege to meet downwinders who demonstrate incredible resilience and strength. Their stories inspire us all to fight for justice—to close the loopholes in RECA to include Downwinders and the post-1971 uranium miners—and address their pain caused by the radiation unleashed in 1945 and after. Today, we must honor those who lost their lives and sacrificed their health to the Trinity test by remembering their stories, but most importantly, by giving these downwinders and post-1971 miners and their descendants the health care and compensation they deserve.”
Udall has fought for many years to expand RECA to cover all victims of radiation exposure, including the Tularosa downwinders and the post-1971 miners and millers who were left out of the initial RECA legislation. Udall has introduced bipartisan legislation to amend RECA to expand compensation for victims of radiation exposure in New Mexico as well as several Western states and Guam. Udall’s bill builds on the efforts of Udall's late father, former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, who represented downwinders in the courts for many years and laid the groundwork for the original RECA legislation, which was passed with bipartisan leadership from Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, among other key supporters. Udall first introduced legislation to update the RECA law as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and has sponsored Senate legislation since 2010.
