Nuclear Colonialism in New Mexico

A Map of Los Alamos, New Mexico and where minority populations are located. Sourced from Draft Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Stockpile Stewardship and Management for a Modern Pit Facility.

Trinity was a nickname for the first Nuclear Testing Explosion that occurred on July 16, 1945 near a county called Los Alamos, New Mexico. This was destructive to the community due to the radiation that nuclear weapons emit causing cancer and genetic mutations. In this study they used the New Mexico Tumor Registry to determine patients who contracted cancer from the nuclear sites. There were 24 cancer types that they documented, brain, breast, cervix uteri, colon/rectum, esophagus, gallbladder, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, kidney, larynx, leukemia, liver, lung, melanoma, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, oral/pharynx, ovary, pancreas, prostate, stomach, testis, thyroid, urinary bladder and uterine. Researchers found "Cancer mortality rates that were significantly elevated in LAC when compared to the state reference population rates include breast cancer" (Franke et al., 2003).

A Photo of a Quote from Edward Smith about the sacredness of Yucca Mountain. Sourced from Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.

This article brings up the idea of Nuclear Colonialism, which they describe as the govenrment disproportionalety placing nuclear testing sites near indigenous communities in order to target their people and land. In class we read the first chapter of Kim TallBear's book Native American DNA: tribal belonging and the false promise of genetic science. We talked about the Human Genome Diversity Project that aimed to collect DNA from Native Americans in order to create a genetic database. We discussed how horribly Native Americans have been treated historically. The HGDP collected data from them by digging up bodies, used bones and remains of Native American. This was all done by researchers for the sole purpose of testing, while compelety destroying their ancestry.

A Photo of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in 1943. Sourced from Carlsbad Current-Argus.

This article is about a law suit against Environmental Protection agency for high contamination of copper, zinc, nickel and alpha radiation in the water system. The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to regulate storm water runoff if that water is deemed unsafe, and they failed to do so. I think it's intersting to think about the communities who have a voice and are heard and who doesn't. This is a predominantly indigenous area that has been suffering from high levels of contamintation, that has not been properly addressed. They are now using ground water extractors to reduce the amount of pollutants in the water. The article mentions that "The chromium was the result of a non-nuclear power plant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which flushed contaminated water into Sandia Canyon from cooling towers between 1956 and 1972" (Hedden, 2019). It's clear that improper disposal of hazourdous waste is very destructive in the short term and has long lasting effects on local communities.