The Navajo Nation has long said it wants uranium shipments prohibited from entering its land, with Navajo President Buu Nygren vowing to construct roadblocks to stop the trucks.
However, the law is not on the tribe’s side.
The Pinyon Plain Mine in northern Arizona, is owned by Energy Fuels, a company that wants to truck the ore 260 to its White Mesa Mill near Blanding, a route that mostly traverses the Navajo Nation.
Tribal government doesn’t want the shipments and has passed laws to stop them. But the route coveres US highways and legally, the tribe has no control over them and can’t stop the uranium trucks from rolling up and down the road.
But one Navajo nation official says the issue is about more than the trucks.
“It really goes against the inherent sovereignty of the Navajo Nation,” said Justin Ahasteen, Executive Director of the Navajo Nation.
“Uranium mining has been a very dark legacy that left behind on the Navajo Nation. From 1944 to 1990, over 30 million tons of uranium was extracted from the Navajo Nation.”
Ahasteen claims that a lot of the Navajo people who were mining in the mines became sick.
Energy Fuels has pointed out out it had nothing to do with the old uranium mines and tailings on tribal lands, it simply wants to drive its uranium to Utah.
A FOX 13 News database search of hazardous material accidents found no record of a uranium shipment spilling on the Navajo Nation, or anywhere in Utah, Arizona or New Mexico, this century.
“We shipped about 300,000 tonnes of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation using many of these same roads between about 2007 and 2015. And so the relatively recent past, with no incidents,” explained Curtis Moore, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development for Energy Fuels, in May.
Ahasteen responded when asked whether the Navajo Nation's stand was more about principle than it is the science or the facts.
“Even though there's the sentiment that's going around now that it's safe for transportation, I think that defeats the purpose of what this actually is long term is the Navajo Nation is sick of uranium to its teeth,” he replied.
As for now, Energy Fuels has stopped the shipments at the request of Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs until all sides can discuss safety concerns, though Moore said the company reserves the right to resume.
Next door to the White Mesa Mill is another tribe, the Ute Mountain Utes, which has also opposed the mining and milling of uranium in the four corners.
