Trinity Site nuclear test remembered

By T. S. Last / Journal North Editor

Published: Thursday, July 16th, 2020 at 10:43pm
Updated: Friday, July 17th, 2020 at 12:02am

About two dozen demonstrators turned out for a protest against the proliferation of nuclear weapons at the Roundhouse on Thursday. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)


Trish Williams Mello, left, and her husband Greg Mello, right, with the Los Alamos Study Group, lead around 25 people during a socially distanced, face mask wearing protest of nuclear weapons outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)


Erich Kuerschner, from Taos, and Roberta Shinaberry, from Jemez Springs, hang a banner outside the Roundhouse that reads “#1 in nuclear weapons Child well-being: DEAD LAST.” They and around 25 people took part in a socially distanced, face mask wearing protest of nuclear weapons outside the State Capitol on Thursday (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)


Erich Kuerschner, from Taos, joins around 25 people for a socially distanced, face mask wearing protest of nuclear weapons outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe on Thursday. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)


Chrysa Wikstrom, from Santa Fe, joins around 25 people protesting against nuclear weapons on the 75th anniversary of the first test of an atomic bomb built at Los Alamos and detonated at the Trinity Site in 1945. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

SANTA FE – The 75th anniversary of the first test of a nuclear weapon was remembered in different ways in northern New Mexico on Thursday.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the bomb, commemorated the world’s first atomic explosion at Trinity Site in southern New Mexico with an event at V-site, a secured part of the LANL campus off limits to the public where early testing and some assembly of “the Gadget” took place.

Weeks later, the United States used the weapon, dropping bombs above Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing thousands and effectively ending World War II.

Meanwhile, at the state capitol in Santa Fe, the anti-nuke Los Alamos Study Group held a demonstration calling on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to demand that the Department of Energy conduct a site-wide environmental impact statement at the lab, which is ramping up production of plutonium pits, the triggering device for nuclear warheads.

Greg Mello, who heads up the group, said we live in a “poorly prioritized society,” where the proliferation of nuclear weapons is accepted and those building weapons are considered essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, many common people who drive the economy have suffered as businesses shut down.

Mello said right now the country is experiencing climate, economic, social and education crises, but “what we don’t have is a crisis in plutonium pits. Those, we have plenty of,” he told a crowd of about two dozen people.

LANL Director Thom Mason said in a short video posted on the LANL website that the anniversary of the Trinity test is a reminder of how teams from different disciplines can work together to solve scientific problems.

“In fact, that’s how we do our work today,” he said, “whether it’s tackling the COVID-19 pandemic or our work in support of the nation’s nuclear stockpile and non-proliferation, we bring together scientists, engineers, technologists, communication experts to solve these problems and talk about them and we’re looking forward to doing that as part the recognition of this historic event.”

Mason said the anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on the lab’s successes serving the country.

But Mello said work at LANL jeopardizes the world in which we live.

“There was a bang 75 years ago and we have been concerned about it ending in a bang,” he said.