Trinity Test-area residents to finally get reparations 80 years later

Axios

10-07-2025

New Mexicans impacted by the Trinity Test are getting closer to receiving compensation after eight decades of health problems and rare cancers stemming from the world's first atomic explosion.
The big picture: President Trump's recently signed the "big, beautiful bill," which includes an extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and, for the first time, covers victims of the Trinity Test.
The inclusion comes after the victims fought for acknowledgement and reparations over multiple generations.
It also comes before the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test, which is next week.
Zoom in: Under the extension and inclusion, Trinity victims can apply for $100,000 for damages caused by the 1945 bomb test that helped end World War II.
RECA, which awarded financial reparations to people who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site, ended last year but has now been renewed for two years thanks to pressure from Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.)
The law was originally passed in 1990, but Hispanic residents and Mescalero Apache tribal members, who were next to the 1945 Trinity Test, were never included. Descendants have suffered from rare cancers for generations.
Yes, but: The recently passed legislation gutting Medicaid covers many residents in New Mexico, including Trinity victims.
The RECA expansion also does not include eligibility for people near Nuclear testing in the U.S. territory of Guam, parts of Arizona, Montana, Colorado and new parts of Nevada.
What they're saying: "The two-year extension will not be long enough for us to get everybody enrolled that should be enrolled, and the health care coverage was stripped out," Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said on a call with reporters Thursday.
Cordova said she was still grateful and relieved New Mexicans were finally added and that her group will continue to fight for Medicaid restorations.
Luján said he's hopeful that his Republican colleagues in the Senate will work with him to reserve some of the Medicaid cuts.
"I want to recognize the leadership of Sen. Hawley when we had a chance to begin working on this over the last couple of years."
Context: On July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert, the U.S. Army detonated an atomic bomb developed at the then-secret community of Los Alamos as part of the World War II-era Manhattan Project.
The bomb exploded at 5:29am, and its thunderous roar knocked people from breakfast tables in the historic Hispanic village of Tularosa and sent Mescalero Apache Reservation residents into hiding.
Following the test in the Jornada del Muerto desert near Alamogordo, residents often picnicked at the site and took artifacts, including the radioactive green glass known as "trinitite."
Residents only learned about the Trinity Test after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
The bomb's aftermath later caused rare forms of cancer for many of the 30,000 people and their descendants in the area surrounding Trinity.
Poor Hispanic residents and Mescalero Apache tribal members held bake sales to pay for cancer treatments.
The intrigue: Downwinders received renewed public interest in 2023 following the release of the blockbuster "Oppenheimer," directed by Christopher Nolan.
The movie follows American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer as his team races to create the atomic bomb, but it overlooks the aftermath on the people of New Mexico.
What we're watching: The U.S. Justice Department is advising the public to wait "for further guidance" before filing a claim, noting on its website that the bill was only recently signed into law.