US Senate hopefuls vow to help Trinity Test descendants

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's three senatorial candidates are promising to help descendants of families who lived the Trinity Test.
Democratic U.S. Senate Martin Heinrich, his Republican challenger Mick Rich and Libertarian Gary Johnson all say they would advocate for descendants to be included in a federal law that compensated families near nuclear test sites.
Currently, federal law does not include New Mexico residents and descendants who live near nuclear test sites.
Descendants say the World War II-era Trinity Test caused generations of southern New Mexico families to suffer from rare cancer and economic hardship.
Residents did not learn that the test had involved an atomic weapon until the U.S. dropped bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war ended.