Tina Cordova to address United Nations
The New Mexican downwinder will speak about the health impact of nuclear testing on the downwinder community, and what leaders can do to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, will speak at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday as part of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, highlighting the health impacts of the 1945 Trinity nuclear test near White Sands.
“For the first time ever, people from all over the world will hear what this has been like for us,” Cordova said. “It’s incredible to have this happen for all the people whose voices were silenced.”
The Trinity test, conducted on July 16, 1945, was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, exposing local residents, many of whom were Native American, to radiation without warning or evacuation.
Cordova said the fallout has caused generations of New Mexicans to suffer from illnesses and cancers linked to radiation exposure. She said she plans to highlight those communities in her address.
“This [address] is not about me. It’s about the thousands of voices that have been silenced,” Cordova said. “We were overexposed to radiation and we were the collateral damage to the Trinity bomb.”
She described the opportunity to speak at the U.N. as “historic and monumental.”
Cordova also criticized the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which was expanded last year under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. She said the legislation excluded key provisions, such as adequate deadlines, proper compensation and a comprehensive list of qualifying cancers.
“We get the bill passed as an addition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and all of these important aspects of the first bill were left out,” she said. “No health care coverage, two and a half years to apply, which is very inadequate. People in New Mexico waited 80 years, 80 years.”
Cordova and other anti-nuclear advocates are pushing for further expansion of RECA to address these shortcomings. She also pointed to a soon-to-be-released study that could reveal the extent of Trinity’s fallout, suggesting it may have spread radiation across the entire country.
“The government essentially exposed almost everybody in the United States to radiation as a result of those tests,” Cordova said. “Depending on where you lived and what the weather was like, it’s going to show that we spread radiation across the entire country, and some areas got more than others.”
Cordova hopes her U.N. address will inspire global leaders to commit to permanent nuclear testing bans and work toward disarmament. Her speech is scheduled for Monday at 8 a.m. Mountain Time.
Meanwhile, New Mexicans who qualify can apply for up to $100,000 in compensation through RECA, either for themselves or on behalf of deceased loved ones.
