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Oppenheimer’s Legacy in New Mexico


NMiF Senior Producer Lou DiVizio opens the show with some headlines from the early part of the week, including progress for a group of New Mexicans fighting to receive compensation for the devastating impacts of nuclear testing beginning during the Manhattan Project.

After the release of the film Oppenheimer, Gene Grant asks The Line Opinion Panel about the legacies of nuclear testing in New Mexico and whether the film should have included an examination of the devastating impacts of the scientists’ work here.

Tina Cordova is the founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and has been working for years to earn recognition and compensation from the federal government for the deadly pollution that followed the Trinity test. New Mexico in Focus correspondent Russell Contreras interviews Cordova this week about being overlooked yet again in the new film, Oppenheimer. 

Host: Lou DiVizio

Line Host: Gene Grant

The Line Opinion Panel: 

Dede Feldman, Democratic former NM state senator 

Sophie Martin, attorney 

Shaun Griswold, editor, Source New Mexico 

Correspondent: Russell Contreras 

Guest: Tina Cordova, founder, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium 

For More Information:

‘Oppenheimer’ leaves out New Mexicans exposed to radiation from the Manhattan Project, despite local efforts to contact filmmakers – Business Insider 

‘People have been dying ever since’: Anger mixes with hope for NM Downwinders – Source NM 

Downwinder advocacy group to air advertisement ahead of some area ‘Oppenheimer’ showings – Santa Fe New Mexican