Michael Swickard
The good news: I am still alive and appreciate every day as a bonus. The bad news: I face health challenges including cancer, which my government does not admit causing. I am a New Mexico downwinder. We are the children of the surprise nuclear attack upon New Mexico by our government.
On July 16, 1945, the Los Alamos-based Manhattan Project came to fruition with the unannounced atomic explosion in New Mexico at Trinity Site. While the explosion was in a remote area, the authorities did not evacuate downwind people. They had no idea of the health challenges they would cause when they spread plutonium on the land, in the air and subsequently in the water supply, which transferred to the food chain.
There is no excuse for the nuclear testing when they had no idea how long the dangers would persist for New Mexicans. Those living downwind and downstream of Trinity had no way of knowing what poisons were at work on them. Some became ill without understanding what caused their illness.
The nuclear fallout descended upon unaware populations in the Rio Grande, Tularosa and Pecos valleys and also assaulted people who consumed the agriculture products from those areas. The deadly effects of the plutonium were, then and even now, ignored by the government.
To this day, New Mexico is not even on the registry for the Federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, an attempt by then-Interior Secretary Stewart Udall to address the harm done to Americans by nuclear development and testing.
On this 66th anniversary of the Trinity explosion, I remind our national and state leaders that New Mexico citizens were injured and still are suffering. We, myself included, are living a lesser life due to the negligent actions of our government. The unintended consequences of Trinity have not been addressed.
Ignored by the government
Most New Mexicans were not aware there was a pretest on May 7, 1945, which released radiation, and then the July 16, 1945 explosion that released a large amount of plutonium radiation. That was followed in New Mexico by four other tests, two in the Trinity area 14 months later. One test at Trinity site did not explode as expected, and without telling visitors to Trinity Site, this unexploded device was left underground and unexploded until it was removed in 1967.
Visitors to Trinity Site should have known about the unexploded device, called “Sleeping Beauty.” While quite remote, there was a chance “Sleeping Beauty” might have gone off while visitors were touring the Trinity Site. There were two other tests in New Mexico with underground explosions. All underground tests could have caused contamination to New Mexico water. Are we sure they did not?
Government representatives continue to stonewall all nuclear injury inquires. There is the question: Who should pay for the damage? Right now the federal government has transferred the cost of the nuclear testing to the citizens, who must deal with the damage as individuals. Most of us have had to deal with our cancers without apology or help from the government.
The good news: I am still alive. The bad news is I am completely ignored by the same government that caused the injury. Not the same people in the government; those are long since gone, but those who have come after have felt no compulsion to address this terrible spreading of plutonium on New Mexico. They have not felt any compulsion to apologize to those of us living with the consequence of bad government planning.
I am mad at those in Congress today who do not want to admit our government made a mistake at Trinity. It was not a mistake to drop those bombs on Japan. The mistake was dropping the poison on New Mexico and then ignoring the deaths and illnesses caused by that action.
The final insult is when I see national leaders wring their hands in Congress over the poor people in Japan subjected to the nuclear bombs while ignoring us Americans who suffer in exactly the same ways for exactly the same reasons.
The half-life of Plutonium is 88 years, so it is only half as dangerous as July 16, 1945. Is that safe enough? Time will tell.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on KSNM-AM 570 in Las Cruces and throughout the state through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.