(Washington) – The US Senate has voted to expand compensation for victims of radiation exposure resulting from nuclear weapons development in the American Southwest following the Christopher Nolan administration. oppenheimer It grossed $80 million last week.
Some of the Navajo people have been hit hardest by nuclear fallout and environmental contamination, and have been hitherto by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which was created as a “quick and low-cost alternative to litigation.” was not entitled to compensation under According to the Justice Department.
The amendments passed Thursday as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024 would provide an expanded group of radiation victims, primarily Navajo, with the opportunity to receive compensation.
Navajo President Dr. Boo Niglen said the passage was a step in the right direction, but said the Navajo people were largely erased from the Navajo story. Oppenheimer.
“The new movie oppenheimerThis seems to represent the nation’s deliberate exclusion of the Navajo and the complex role played by the Navajo,” President Nygren told ABC News. “It’s time for the Navajo to come to the table on issues surrounding America’s nuclear history and future.”
“Our Navajo brothers and sisters were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation that led to illness and death,” he said. “We are entitled to recognition, compensation and resources to deal with the impact we have had.”
The Navajo are the largest Native American tribe, both by land and population, straddling the states of Arizona and New Mexico, or the “Ulaan Belt,” and the Department of Defense estimated approximately 30 million tons of uranium from 1944 to 1986. mined ore. Supply to nuclear manufacturing.
Government contractors have since abandoned more than 500 uranium mines across Navajo lands, often leaving dangerous levels of radiation and environmental health hazards, according to a recent Environmental Protection Agency assessment. .
Phil Harrison is a former uranium miner and founding member of the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Commission (NURVC). NURVC helped pass his first RECA in 1990 and its successor in 2000.
“We worked on the front lines of national security. told ABC News. “We were forgotten.”
“Passing this amendment is one of the biggest victories the Navajo have ever seen,” Harrison said.
Most importantly, under the previous RECA law, only uranium miners employed before 1971 could receive compensation, even though federal mines operated until 1990. was only More workers will be able to receive compensation in the future.
Radiation exposure has been linked to dozens of cancers, birth defects, and organ failures by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some of which were found to occur in the Navajo at a rate three to five times higher than in the general population. doing.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-New Mexico) worked with New Mexico lawmakers to propose an amendment.
“The United States has determined that the production of atomic bombs is essential to national security,” Fernandez said at a press conference on Thursday. “It is only right to bring ‘Oppenheimer’ to light while bringing compensation to the miners and workers who have sacrificed for our country.”
“A lot of people are now looking at what happened in the atomic age: bombs cost money and the bills are due,” she said.
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