TMZ.com
The nuclear bomb test shown in “Oppenheimer” left a lasting legacy of radiation exposure and cancer diagnosis on generations of folks who helped build Los Alamos in New Mexico … but people there say their problems are still being ignored by Hollywood and Congress.
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, joined us on “TMZ Live” Wednesday and told us why the world’s first nuclear bomb test is still affecting families in New Mexico, decades after Robert Oppenheimer’s nuke detonated in the desert.
“Oppenheimer” looks poised to win a bunch of Oscar statues at this weekend’s Academy Awards, but Tina says filmmakers blatantly excluded all the people who made Los Alamos and the Trinity Test possible in the first place.
Remember … the nuclear bomb test in July 1945 took place amid thunderstorms, resulting in toxic debris falling back to earth in the ensuing rain … contaminating the landscape, water supplies and the food chain … and exposing New Mexico residents to harmful radiation.
Tina, who helped make a doc about the fallout, tells us cancer has decimated her family ever since the bomb went off — they lived only 15 miles from the blast — with 5 generations being diagnosed with all sorts of cancers … including lung, oral, skin, brain and thyroid.
She says filmmakers left this nuclear mess out of the film on purpose … similar to how New Mexico residents were left out of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act back in the day, which provided financial compensation to Americans living near nuclear testing sites.
When folks living near the Trinity Test site were finally set to be included in RECA, potentially opening the door for payments, Tina says Republican leadership in Congress cut their funding because of budget concerns.
Now, with “Oppenheimer” gearing up for a big Oscars night and an upcoming Senate vote on reauthorizing and expanding RECA, Tina is banging the drum for the people of New Mexico.
It was an issue then … and it remains an issue today.
