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The first nuclear test on American soil causes the first large scale fallout of radioactive material.
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-- Trinity site selection and initial construction begin; chosen for remoteness and secrecy on the White Sands Proving Ground (New Mexico).
-- The population surrounding the chosen site was sparse.
-- This test site was conveniently located 200 miles southeast of Los Alamos National Laboratory. -
-- Plutonium core components (two hemispheres of the “gadget”) are moved from Los Alamos toward the Trinity test site for final assembly.
-- This famous picture captures the moment the core was brought into the new facility.
-- Construction of the bomb began under the trinity tower. -
-- The Bomb's components were assembled at the base of the testing tower.
-- The cold night air made fitting the components difficult having previously been fit in warm and indoor environments in California.
-- These hurdles were overcome and the bomb was assembled the next day. -
-- Reporters were loaded into a caravan of buses, cars and trucks at 11 pm and headed out of Albuquerque New Mexico to a destination 125 miles to the Southeast, all to witness the detonation.
-- The "lucky" reporters were given sunscreen for their faces and were told to lay prone with their heads away from the blast.
-- some reported seeing the surrounding mountains lit up by the light from the blast. -
-- Unaware of the test, and the dangers of radiation local teenagers played in the "warm snow" of the fallout as large white flakes fell on downwind municipalities.
-- Some were reported to have rubbed the flakes into their skin surprised at the warmth of these snow-like flakes.
-- The local residents were neither informed or warned of the dangers. -
-- Trinity detonation at ~5:29 a.m. Mountain War Time, the tower vaporized.
-- A glassy surface (“Trinitite”) formed at the explosion site and made a crater 8 ft deep and 800 yards wide producing a highly radioactive plume that drifted over nearby communities.
-- The plume of the explosion estimated beforehand to reach 12,000 feet actually was observed at 70,000 feet, -
-- By the late 40's residents in Lincoln, Otero, Sierra, and Socorro counties begin reporting higher-than-expected cancers and other illnesses.
-- While epidemiologic links to Trinity fallout are not immediately established, some doctors and scientists begin to suspect a connection between these illnesses and the nuclear testing.
-- Many experiencing these illnesses had no family history of such cancers or heart issues. -
-- Nuclear testing continues through 1962.
-- More than 96 tests that year.
-- 300 nuclear tests are conducted from 1945 through the end of 1962 and maps of radioactive clouds like this one are produced by Government agencies. -
-- Reports of some New Mexico residents calling the scar from thyroid cancer surgery "The Smile"
-- It was reported from one resident that more and more of their friends and acquaintances are afflicted with this disease.
-- It has come to some folks in New Mexico to be associated with nuclear fallout illnesses and the tests at the Trinity site. -
-- In 1967 excavation and removal of contaminated soil took place with the goal of managing the radioactive material produced by the first blast.
--10 train boxcars of the trinitite glass were scraped off the desert floor and taken away.
-- A fence was added around the area to limit civilian exposure. -
-- By the 70's many of those teenagers who were out playing in the "warm snow" at a campsite near the explosion had died before the age of 40.
-- Many other individuals exposed to early fallout report premature illnesses and deaths.
-- Scientific and legal communities wrestle with proving individual causation from dispersed low-level exposures. -
-- Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) enacted to provide statutory compensation for eligible downwinders (Nevada) and uranium workers.
-- Program specifies eligibility criteria and payment amounts by claim type.
-- One time payment of $50,000-$100,000 from the U.S. government for damages. -
-- On September 23 1992 the last test on American soil, "Divider" was conducted.
-- This test was underground.
-- The test was carried out one week before a moratorium on nuclear testing went into effect. -
-- The 2024-2025 congress extended the application deadline for RECA to 2027.
-- The program expanded eligibility to include post-1971 miners of uranium done on behalf of the government.
-- This was finalized in the first few months of this year.