Navajo, lawmakers, push for federal reimbursement for radiation exposure

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - A scientific achievement and catalyst for World War Two victory, detonating the first atomic bomb in new Mexico served as the climax for Oscar winning film Oppenheimer.

For those living in the region, the fallout was anything but glamorous.

“People, who lived within the fallout were never compensated for the harms, for the radiation that they received,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-NM.

According to the EPA, nearly 30 million tons of uranium were mined from Navajo lands between 1944 and 1986.

Navajo leaders say members of the tribe helped the U.S. by mining, not fully understanding the risks.

“For them it was simply food on the table and a job, but they were never warned,” said Phil Harris with the Navajo Nation. They drank contaminated water, they took contaminated clothes back to their families, and hundreds of people died.”

Leslie Begay mined uranium for eight years, and developed lung disease.

“Freedom is not free,” Begay said. “It’s costing our lives.”

Begay said communities of many who developed health issues are medically underdeveloped, making treatment difficult.

“We have to drive three hours to the nearest hospital.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers want to extend that fund, increase the amount of states covered and extend coverage to uranium minors working after 1971, the current cut off year.

The fund to compensate those harmed by radiation is set to end this July.

“If we don’t renew it, nobody’s going to get anything,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, said. “Missourians are never going to get compensated. We have got to get this done this year.”

The plan to expand the fund passed the U.S. Senate, but was scrapped from the most recent bipartisan budget agreement.

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