Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill
On July 16, 1979, New Mexico Navaho Nation residents woke up to find a river of radioactive waste flooding their land, water supply and livelihood.
The worst nuclear accident in the United States was NOT the Three Mile Island partial nuclear power plant meltdown in Pennsylvania. It was the Church Rock Uranium Mill spill in New Mexico four months later.
A break in the nuclear waste pond dam spewed 1,100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water contaminating 250 acres of Navaho Nation land and more than 50 downstream miles of the Rio Pureco River.
Ironically, the spill happened 34 years to the day after the first atomic bomb in the Trinity test rained radiation on New Mexico residents about 325 miles southeast of Church Rock at the White Sands Proving Ground. And like Trinity, the devasting effects to approximately 1,700 people in the Church Rock spill area were downplayed and dismissed.


But that is not all the nuclear waste the United States has generated.
The U.S. left the Runit Dome (below) in the Marshall Islands, covering more than 3.1 million cubic feet of contaminated soil, debris, and plutonium generated from 67 American nuclear bombs detonated in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958. The dome is unsecure with cracks widening every year and an ocean that is intent on undermining the site. The United States has refused to help with any removal or clean-up, saying the dome is on Marshall Islands land and is now the responsibility of the Island nation.

Grand Canyon Conservation & Advocacy | Grand Canyon Trust; Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety;
Uranium workers