A National Center for Biotechnology Information study published online on Sept. 1 2020, “Accounting for Unfissioned Plutonium from the Trinity Atomic Bomb Test,” stated that the Trinity device contained about 6 kilograms – approximately 13.23 pounds – of plutonium as its fission source.
Only about 15% of the plutonium-239 actually underwent fission, according to the authors: Harold L. Beck, U.S.
Department of Energy Environmental Measurements Laboratory (retired); Steven L. Simon, Division of Cancer Epidemiology, National Cancer Institute; André Bouville,, National Cancer Institute (retired) and Anna Romanyukha, Centre for Medical Radiation Physics at the University of Wollongong in Australia.
“The remaining unfissioned plutonium eventually was vaporized in the fireball and after cooling, was deposited downwind from the test site along with the various fission and activation products produced in the explosion,” the authors stated.
About 80% of the unfissioned plutonium was deposited within the state of New Mexico, most in a relatively small area downwind known as the Chupadera Mesa, they said.
“The plutonium deposited as a result of the Trinity test was unlikely to have resulted in significant health risks to the downwind population,” the authors concluded.
In his 2001 testimony, Szymendera said the decision on whether and how to expand the RECA downwinder area is ultimately a political one that may be made by Congress. He noted that the “probability of causation model” recommended by the National Research Council committee in its review to determine eligibility, has been shown to be “difficult to administer effectively and efficiently.”
The model relies on accurate dose reconstruction, which is a process fraught with uncertainty because of the limited exposure data that is often available, he said.
For example, for an accurate dose estimation of Iodine-131, a person would have to accurately provide information on the type of milk they drank (cow or goat), the source of that milk (fresh or store-bought), and the quantity of milk that they regularly consumed over 60 years ago, Syzmendera said.
The Department of Justice concluded in 2006 that it would not have authority to take action to implement the recommendations contained in the National Research Council committee report “because doing so would entail a complete revision of RECA,” which would require legislative action, according to GAO.
Syzmendera said creation of a geographic downwinder area for the Trinity Test Site would be contrary to the National Research Council recommendations and would create its own set of challenges.
“If Congress were to decide to create a downwinder area for the Trinity Test Site, it would have to consider that there was one test, with a yield of 21 [kilotons], at that site, compared to 100 atmospheric tests at [Nevada Test Site],” he said.
“The eligibility periods for presence in the NTS downwinder area all but assure that persons would have been present for more than one atmospheric test,” Syzmendera added. “Congress would have to determine if the radiation risk to the human health of persons in New Mexico during the period of the Trinity Test is sufficiently large to justify their inclusion in the RECA program as downwinders.”
Creation of a downwinder site for the Pacific tests also would be contrary to the conclusions of the National Research Council, Syzmendera added, but noted that the Council devoted an appendix of its report to the issue of fallout on Guam: “As a result of its analysis, the committee concludes that Guam did receive measurable fallout from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific. Residents of Guam during that period should be eligible for compensation under RECA in a way similar to that of persons considered to be downwinders.”
Syzmendera cautioned that while that statement might appear to support the inclusion of Guam in the RECA downwinder area, it is recommending that Guam residents be subject to the same probability of causation model advocated by the report for all residents of the United States and its territories.
Post-’71 issues
An expansion of RECA to include post-1971 uranium activities would largely cover workers in the commercial uranium sector, which would expand the program beyond its original statutory intent, Syzmendera said.
In the 1990 law, the cutoff date for uranium worker eligibility was selected because the federal government’s procurement of uranium for atomic weapons ended in 1971. Beginning in 1964 with the enactment of the Private Ownership of Special Nuclear Materials Act, a private ownership of uranium for fuel for nuclear power plants has been legal, creating an additional market for mined and milled uranium and ensuring that mining, milling, and transporting of uranium continued after the cutoff date for RECA eligibility, he said. Illnesses contracted while conducting those activities for commercial clients rather than the federal government, likely would be covered by existing state workers’ compensation systems, which are the traditional means of providing medical benefits and compensation in cases of commercial workplace injuries, illnesses or deaths, according to Syzmendera.
Jennifer McCall, senior RECA paralegal to J. Keith Killian at the Killian, Davis, Richter & Fredenburg law firm in Grand Junction, Colo., has been monitoring RECA and filing worker claims for decades. Mc-Call said she knows of only a few claimants who have been compensated under the Workers’ Compensation Program.
“Usually, the statute of limitations has expired,” she said, adding that in most states the limit is two years. She remembered an underground miner who was awarded approximately $5,500 in 1964 for silicosis and died in 1970 of lung cancer. Had RECA been enacted at the time of the miner’s diagnosis, he would have been eligible to receive $100,000.
“The Department of Labor will take an offset on claims that have been awarded workers’ compensation for the same disease,” McCall said. “We have had several spouse claims that had been awarded workers’ compensation, but those were years ago, and DOL did offset their awards. There is the Subsequent Injury Fund, but I haven’t seen any claims on that in a long time.”
Unless the statute of limitations is changed, McCall doubts there would be any viable claims. “The mines have been closed for 30+ years. I would imagine most of the workers that are left are close to or at full retirement age,” she said.
billion reasons
Linda Evers, Liz Lucero and her late husband Cipriano “Cip” Lucero, co-founded the Post-’71 Uranium Workers Committee in Grants nearly 20 years ago. Evers and Cip worked in the uranium mills after the 1971 cutoff date. Evers also drove an ore truck. Liz washed her husband’s yellowcake-covered overalls in the family washing machine. Family members got sick. Evers’ children had malformations.
“We have been fighting for justice for the post’71 uranium workers since 2000,” Evers said, and in all the workers she has encountered, she does not know of any who received workers’ comp for their illnesses or death. “We didn’t get unemployment when we were laid off because ‘the company cannot be held accountable for the price of yellowcake,’” she said they were told.
Regarding RECA’s meltdown in the House, Evers said: “It’s a very sad day when our government ignores and neglects patriots in this country. Especially when it’s the very patriots that gave their lives for the freedom that every person in this country enjoys every day. It’s difficult for these sick and dying workers to watch while our government gives money to every country that has a sad story or a never-ending war,” she said.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States has committed more than $51.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration. While not all data is in yet for 2023-2024, economic aid to Ukraine since 1946 totals $43 billion and military aid, $70 billion.
Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion, adjusted for inflation. That includes $80 billion in economic aid and $230 billion in military assistance. The United States has provisionally agreed in a memorandum of understanding to provide Israel with $3.8 billion per year through 2028, the website states.
In addition to economic aid, the United States also has provided $90 billion in military aid to Egypt, $105 billion to Afghanistan, $95 billion to South Vietnam, $43 billion to Iraq, $50 billion to South Korea, $10 billion to the United Kingdom, $1 billion to India, and $52 billion to Turkey, the Council on Foreign Relations reported.
Combining the totals for military aid alone for all the countries mentioned, the United States has shelled out roughly $746 billion since 1946.
“When are the post’71 uranium workers going to be compensated for their efforts for this country?” Evers asked.
She wrote a letter to Washington in April calling on the House to lend its support to RECA. “The uranium industry has been paying politicians since the 1940’s to overlook the horrendous human casualties that overexposure to radiation causes. The government has been doing this for decades and now the government is doing it again.
“Currently there is a new drive to open new uranium mines without holding the past companies responsible and making them clean up their last mess that we still live with,” she said. “It is way past time for these workers to get the justice they so rightly deserve for giving their lives for the nuclear efforts of the United States.”
Evers claims that the government was and is the sole entity responsible for worker safety in the United States – “and they failed the post ’71 workers completely for the sake of industry profits and kickbacks. Now they want to pretend we don’t exist, and our radiationcaused illnesses and diseases are not their fault.”
“If it weren’t for us workers underground and in the mills, Oppenheimer wouldn’t have had any material to construct his bombs with. But Hollywood glorifies his ‘accomplishments’ as great, when the truth is that he should have been prosecuted as one of history’s greatest and most successful war criminals. Oppenheimer killed hundreds of thousands, and it wasn’t just in Japan. His killing spree started in New Mexico and Nevada,” she wrote.
“The government continues to spew the lie of ‘safe nuclear power.’ NOTHING could be further from the truth,” she emphasized, “as radiation permeates everything it gets close to and leaves waste products that [can] have a half life of 100,000 years. It kills air, land, water, people, animals, plants … well everything. But for the sake of industry and political profits, we, the people, are sacrificed, then ignored.”
If the government can print enough money for the other countries of the world, she said, “they can print enough money to compensate the very workers that secured our freedom.”