The United States has widened its federal radiation-compensation programme to include people sickened by fallout from the 1945 Trinity atomic test, marking the first time residents of New Mexico gain access to payments long available in parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The change, folded into a Republican tax package signed earlier this month, amends the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and keeps the scheme alive through 2028. Under the revised rules, individuals who lived in designated New Mexico counties between 1945 and 1962—and who later developed one of several radiation-linked cancers—may apply for one-time payments of up to US$25,000. Coverage is also being extended to additional ‘downwinder’ communities in Utah and Idaho, as well as to uranium-industry workers in 11 western states and residents of selected areas in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alaska. Advocates estimate at least 10,000 people in the Tularosa Basin could be eligible. “There’s people that it means millions, multi-millions, to them,” said Edna Kay Hinkle, whose family has battled cancer for generations. Many rural claimants lack insurance or must travel hours for treatment; supporters argue the payments will offset medical and transport costs. The expansion coincides with today’s 80th anniversary of the Trinity detonation, a 19-kiloton plutonium blast that lit the New Mexico desert before dawn on 16 July 1945. Subsequent research found that radioactive debris spread across 46 of the 48 contiguous states; a National Cancer Institute study linked the fallout to elevated thyroid-cancer risks in five New Mexico counties. Despite those findings, Trinity downwinders had been excluded from federal aid until now. Lawmakers from both parties say the two-year extension is only a stop-gap and have pledged to seek a permanent re-authorisation when the new Congress convenes in 2027. For survivors whose health is already failing, advocates warn, the race will be against both legislative calendars and time.