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Energy Fuels Resources plans to start hauling ore from the three operating mines to its White Mesa Mill near Blanding, Utah, where it will be stockpiled until processing begins in 2025.
Transporting the ore is another issue for Tilousi, who is a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
“My concern is the safety of the people on that road,” she said. “What happens when there’s a spill or a wreck or an accident? Who’s going to clean it up?”
Members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe oppose the transportation plan because several members live in the White Mesa community, which is adjacent to the mill site, while leaders and members of the Navajo Nation oppose the route because it crosses the tribe’s land.
Former tribal President Ben Shelly and the 22nd Navajo Nation Council enacted a law in 2012 that prohibits transporting uranium and other radioactive materials across the Navajo Nation unless it relates to the cleanup of past activities related to uranium mining and milling sites on the tribe’s land.
“The Navajo Nation has the right to exclude nonmembers and to condition their entry onto Navajo Nation lands and has the independent sovereign right and duty to protect the health, welfare and safety of the Navajo Nation and its citizens,” the tribal law states.
Energy Fuels Resources is authorized to use two routes that travel on state and federal highways, including those on Navajo land, according to Kaibab National Forest’s website. The roads are under the authority of the Arizona Department of Transportation, and the agency is not bound to comply with the tribe’s law from 2012.
In April, the Navajo Nation Council and tribal President Buu Nygren reiterated the tribe’s stance against uranium mining and associated activities. The resolution signed by Nygren includes a letter written by him and tribal council Speaker Crystalyne Curley to Biden that asks the president to use his executive authority to stop the planned transportation across the tribe’s land before it starts.
“Furthermore, we implore you to publicly support a legislative solution that would reinforce the sovereignty of tribal nations, enabling us to enforce our laws and protect our people,” Nygren and Curley wrote in the letter.
They also reminded Biden that Navajo leaders were “encouraged” by the establishment of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni national monument.
“Our support for the monument reaffirmed our stance against the transportation of uranium across Navajo lands, which not only endangers our communities but also contradicts our sovereign rights to enforce our laws and protect our territory,” the tribal leaders wrote.
In a news release on July 10, Nygren repeated the tribe’s position opposing trucks using roads on the Navajo Nation to deliver uranium to Utah.
Source: Outsider
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Sources of Particulate Uranium
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9610560
Radionuclides can enter the body in three routes: inhalation, ingestion, and absorption through intact or damaged skin [23]. Current research indicates that long-term exposure to inhaled radioactive aerosols has the greatest impact on the health risk [24
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