Contamination from Trinity nuclear test site continues to plague Navajo land
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“Oppenheimer” swept the Oscars on Sunday, detailing the creation of the atomic bomb at the trinity test site. But what the film failed to capture was the impact the nuclear test had on local residents. Between 1944 and 1986, the US Department of Defense dumped more than 30 million tons of Uranium in the area between Arizona and New Mexico known as the "Uranium Belt", in the middle of a Navajo reservation. According to the CDC, this radioactive exposure has resulted in dozens of cancers, birth deformities and organ failures at a level five times higher than the national average. The US Senate voted earlier this year to extend reparations to victims of radioactive contamination. FRANCE 24's Pierrick Leurent, Valérie Defert, and Wassim Cornet report.