A truck carrying uranium ore across the Navajo Nation Tuesday was being ordered to stop, according to President Buu Nygren, who said “the lack of notification” about its trip was “a blatant disregard for our tribal sovereignty.”
The ore is mined on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and is trucked to Utah’s White Mesa Mill for processing. Nygren objected on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the route “exposes our Diné people to toxic uranium, a substance that has devastated our community for decades.”
I have deployed Navajo Police to stop the illegal transport of uranium across the reservation.
— Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren (@BuuVanNygren) July 30, 2024
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - “I am very disappointed that uranium is being hauled across our Navajo Nation right now,” President Nygren said. “I was notified 30 minutes ago, and I have… pic.twitter.com/2HLKv2g7u8
Stephen Etsitty, who leads the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, confirmed that the truck was carrying uranium, said a spokesperson for the Navajo Nation president.
In May, President Biden signed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act. The United States has been importing 35% of its nuclear fuel from Russia, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The act phases out Russian uranium imports and then bans them by 2028.
Utah has been having a uranium resurgence, though the increase is nothing like the Cold War-era mining and milling. Uranium production in the 1950s and 1960s, has left toxic sites and sick miners across the Four Corners, particularly on the Navajo Nation.
Days before President Biden signed the Russian import ban, Nygren signed a resolution asking that uranium no longer be shipped across Navajo tribal lands.
A search of a database of hazardous material accidents maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation shows no record of a uranium shipment spilling on the Navajo Nation, or anywhere in Utah, Arizona or New Mexico, this century.
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