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Aspen Coriz-Romero

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Anila Lopez Brands

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It has been almost 80 years since the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. People have been in turmoil ever since.

For generations, Americans living “downwind” of nuclear test and development sites have suffered fatal health complications. And this summer, funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) expired, putting their hard-earned compensation at risk.

Given the astronomical spending on nuclear weapons development, this misstep is scandalous. Funding for these communities, which span much of the country, should not only be restored but expanded.

In addition to New Mexico residents, people in Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Utah and elsewhere suffered health complications from Nevada’s nuclear tests. And the radioactive fallout from decades of testing devastated the Marshall Islands, which were occupied by the United States after World War II.

Communities in Colorado were exposed to radiation from the Rocky Flats weapons plant. And people living near Coldwater Creek in Missouri were exposed when World War II nuclear waste was buried there.

Over the next generations, tens of thousands of people were affected, with health consequences including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, birth defects and increased cancer rates.

We are from New Mexico, the only state where all steps of the nuclear production process – dismantling, testing and disposal – occur in parallel. We have lived near affected communities all our lives.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium in New Mexico, said five generations of her family have suffered the health and economic consequences of nuclear testing. “We are forced to bury our loved ones on a regular basis,” she said.

Uranium mining in the Navajo Nation also has terrible consequences. Between 1944 and 1986, 30 million tons of uranium ore were mined on Navajo land. The indigenous miners were exposed to radiation without adequate safety precautions, which led to aggressive cancers, miscarriages, lung disease and other illnesses.

After decades of fighting for compensation, communities affected by the development of nuclear weapons finally achieved the adoption of the RECA in 1990 – 45 years after the first atomic bomb was dropped.

The original law provided $2.6 billion for about 41,000 people and limited coverage to on-site participants and downwinders in certain areas of the Nevada Test Site. The law was amended in 2000 to include those who developed cancer or other specific diseases while working as uranium miners between 1942 and 1971.

Since then, there have been bipartisan efforts to expand the law’s narrow scope to include other affected communities. In response to years of lobbying, an expanded and enhanced version of RECA successfully passed the Senate this spring by a vote of 69-30 – and with the support of President Biden.

The bill would have expanded RECA eligibility to all downwinders in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and Guam, in addition to previously excluded areas in Nevada, Arizona and Utah. And it would have included miners exposed to radiation through 1990.

But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson blocked a vote in the House, abandoning the invisible victims of the U.S. nuclear arms race. Now RECA has expired entirely.

It’s not for lack of money. The United States is expected to spend more than $750 billion on nuclear weapons over the next decade – a fact that is incompatible with the fact that the people affected by this spending are being abandoned.

At the same time, people continue to be exposed to radiation.

Even today, there are 523 abandoned uranium mines and waste dumps on Navajo territory – and companies continue to transport uranium through Navajo land, even though uranium mining has been banned there for nearly two decades.

Another problem is the mismanagement of nuclear waste. In 2019, 250 barrels of nuclear waste were lost on the way to the waste isolation pilot plant in New Mexico.

To protect future generations – and our own – the ultimate goal should be an end to nuclear weapons development. But as we work toward that goal, repairing the harm to affected communities – by renewing and expanding RECA – is a necessary next step.

Aspen Coriz-Romero is a New Mexico Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Española, New Mexico. Anila Lopez Marks is an IPS Henry A. Wallace Fellow in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This opinion piece was shared by OtherWords.org.

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