By Levi Rickert August 12, 2024
Opinion. On July 30, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren’s busy schedule was interrupted just before noon by the news Energy Fuels Resources had two trucks going through the Navajo Indian reservation carrying radioactive uranium ore. He contacted the Navajo police to attempt to halt the illegal transportation of uranium ore through the largest Indian reservation in the country.
The two trucks originated at the Pinyon Plain Mine, which is owned by Energy Fuels Resources and located near the Grand Canyon. The were traveling to the White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah.
The uranium ore was transported by Energy Fuels Resources against the wishes of the Nygren and Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley.
“They snuck through the Navajo Nation and made it onto the Utah side, outside the reservation,” Nygren said. “To me, they operated covertly to travel the Navajo Nation illegally. It’s very disappointing that they did that, that they smuggled uranium across our Nation, which is inappropriate.”
As leaders of the sovereign Navajo Nation, the leaders' concerns about the radioactive uranium being transported across their reservation is justified.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted on the Navajo Indian Reservation over four decades, from 1944 to 1986.
The greedy corporations that went onto the reservation and extracted uranium left the mines without proper cleanup. Today, there are 523 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation that have yet to be mitigated. The estimated total clean up costs exceed $1 billion.