New Mexico commemorates nuke history
On July 16, 1945, the United States government tested the first atomic bomb, called the Gadget, on the grounds of the White Sands Missile Range, changing the future of the world forever. The Gadget held 13 pounds of plutonium, of which only three pounds fissioned. The remaining 10 pounds disbursed as the mushroom cloud came down in the rainstorms that followed the blast. The contaminated ash fell on open water sources, fields ready for harvest, gardens, people and animals. Then on July 16, 1979, the largest uranium tailings spill in the U.S. occurred at the North East Church Rock Uranium Tailings site. An earthen dam, operated by United Nuclear Corporation, holding liquid uranium waste, broke, releasing more than 1,100 million tons of solid radioactive mill waste and more than 90 million gallons of acidic and radioactive liquids into the Río Puerco. The contaminated waters flowed downstream through Gallup, and across nine Navajo chapters, contaminating at least 80 miles of the river and its banks. On Saturday (July 13), from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Red Water Pond Road Community will host its 40th annual commemoration of the 1979 Uranium Tailings Spill, at a location 12 miles north of the Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566, near Church Rock, according to a press release from the nonprofit Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. At 7 a.m. those gathered for the commemoration will walk to the spill site to offer healing prayers and educational events. Edith Hood, a resident of the Red Water Pond Road Community, said, “Let us come together again and share these issues and concerns, collaborate and strategize, to push clean up of these contaminated environments among our Diné people, to restore, preserve and protect our Mother Earth.” On Saturday (July 20), beginning at 7:30 pm, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will host its 10th Annual Candlelight Vigil to honor those harmed in the 1945 Trinity test. It will be held at the Tularosa Little League Field, located west of the Tularosa High School.