The Oppenheimer story that won't win Oscars - BBC News

The film shines a light on the work done by scientists in New Mexico but locals say their story is untold.

2 days agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsThe OscarsImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Tina CordovaBy Emma Vardy & Sam GranvilleBBC News, New MexicoThe success of the film Oppenheimer has shone a spotlight on the work done by scientists in New Mexico as they developed the first nuclear bomb. But 80 years later, some local people say their story remains untold.

"Both my great grandfathers had cancer, my two grandmothers had cancer, my father had three different cancers, my sister has cancer," Tina Cordova says mournfully as she flicks through an old family photo album in her living room.

"I've lost count of the aunts and uncles and cousins who've had cancer. And my family is not unique."

Ms Cordova lives in Albuquerque, about a two-hour drive from where the atomic bomb was developed.

She's one of the "Downwinders," a term used to describe the communities who claim to have been affected by radiation from the Trinity Test, which was the world's first detonation of a nuclear weapon in the New Mexican desert.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68515779

---