By RANDALL RYTI
Los Alamos

I watched the local premiere of the documentary film “First We Bombed New Mexico” as part of the Oppenheimer Film Festival at the SALA Event Center on Aug. 17, 2024. This documentary tells the powerful story of the impacts of the Trinity Site atomic weapon blast on the people living in the Tularosa Basin.

If you are not familiar with this history, I encourage attending one of the showings of this film over the next two weekends – Aug. 22-24 or Aug. 29-31. You can also visit the website for the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (www.trinitydownwinders.com). 

There has been Federal legislation that has provided compensation to some of the downwinder communities. Unfortunately, this law expired a couple of months ago. This law, known as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act or RECA can still be re-authorized and expanded to cover the people impacted by nuclear testing and uranium mining. The original RECA law was only signed into effect in 1990 or decades after many of the tests. RECA has been extended but never expanded. The expanded RECA legislation has passed the US Senate 69-30 and only awaits Speaker Johnson supporting a vote in the US House.

There is still time for the Federal government to do the right thing and provide compensation for all downwinders. If you agree then consider contacting Speaker Johnson (202.225.4000) to let him know you support a vote on RECA on the House Floor.