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SALT LAKE CITY — As the new Hollywood film "Oppenheimer" rakes in millions, members of the Navajo Nation are still feeling the impacts of radiation exposure. The nation's president recently spoke out against the movie for leaving out the decades of suffering his people endured as a result of the atomic era.
"Oppenheimer," directed by Christopher Nolan, is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "American Prometheus." It follows the life story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb."
Over 30 million tons of uranium were extracted from the Navajo Nation and nearby lands during the Cold War, leaving over 500 abandoned mine sites. Research shows miners and their families were not informed of the danger of radiation exposure, although such risks were well-known by the government.
"The Navajo people cannot afford to be, yet again, erased from history. Hollywood has a lot of work to do, and they can start by standing with the Navajo people and urging Congress to provide just compensation for victims of radiation exposure," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren wrote in an op-ed for Time Magazine. "Growing up in a community that has an abandoned uranium mine in Red Mesa, Arizona, I witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking and enduring consequences of uranium mining on my people."
"Oppenheimer" was released in theaters just five days after the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mine spill, which saw 94 million gallons of radioactive waste poured into the Puerco River and spreading across the Navajo Nation, Nygren points out.
"What came next — cancers, miscarriages and mysterious illnesses — is a direct consequence of America's race for nuclear hegemony," Nygren said. "It's an accomplishment built on top of the bodies of Navajo men, women and children — the lived experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But, as usual, Hollywood chose to gloss over them."
Some steps have been taken to address the long-lasting impact of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently has contracts to clean up abandoned uranium mines on the reservation. Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990, which provides payments to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other diseases as a result of radiation exposure.
But Nygren says justice remains elusive for many Navajo families due to the act's shortcomings. For example, the list of covered diseases leaves out conditions that have only subsequently been connected to radiation exposure. It also excluded Navajo miners who were employed after 1971.
Nygren stresses that the impacts of uranium mining are not an issue of the past. As of Aug. 1, 2022, over 53,800 claims had been filed under the law. Of those, more than 12% identified as Navajos, according to Nygren. New victims of radiation-related illnesses are regularly diagnosed and "abhorrent rates" of stillbirths and miscarriages continue to happen, he explained.
"While our Navajo Code Talkers are esteemed for heroically saving countless lives in the South Pacific during World War II, our uranium miners have largely been overlooked. The only thank-you for their years of patriotic service has been death, disease and decades of advocacy to recognize their sacrifice," Nygren said. "Time is slipping away for Navajo uranium miners and their descendants, their hopes dangling in the balance. With each passing day, their weary bodies bear the weight of diseases inflicted by their labor; the clock ticks, mercilessly. "
