OPPOSITION FORMS AGAINST MINING, TRANSPORTATION OF URANIUM ORE
Company says risks of hauling to Utah are low, but tribes, environmental groups remain skeptical
PHOENIX – A mining company plans to begin hauling uranium extracted from a mine near the Grand Canyon to a processing mill in Utah within the next three to six months, despite opposition from Indigenous communities, environmental organizations and local authorities.
Energy Fuels Inc. said once the process starts, six to eight haul trucks covered with a tarp will carry approximately 200 pounds of uranium daily from the Pinyon Plain Mine in Arizona to the White Mesa Mill in Utah.
The authorized route will cross the Navajo Nation on its way to the mill.
Curtis Moore, the company’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate development, emphasizes that during extraction and transportation, the ore remains unprocessed and is not highly radioactive or dangerous.
“We’re not hauling pure uranium,” he said. “We’re hauling rock that has uranium.”
Uranium concentrations in the ore carried by the trucks are as low as about 1%, according to Steven H. Brown, a certified health physicist and member of the Health Physics Society, who provides consulting services within the mining sector.
“These very, very low levels of radiation we’re talking about, there’s no evidence of any adverse health effects,” Moore said.
Still, contamination from past uranium mining in the Southwest, particularly in the Navajo Nation, has resulted in a legacy of distrust among the locals, provoking them to take action.
The Coconino County Board of Supervisors last month passed a resolution opposing uranium mining and hauling, joining other opponents of the plan to move the ore.
A uranium ore deposit was identified in 1983 in the region, within what last August was designated Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.
“We did not cut down a single tree to build that mine,” Moore said. “It was just a hole in the forest. That’s actually how they found it.”
After four decades of standing by, conducting scientific research and obtaining the permits needed, Energy Fuels Inc. started late last year to extract ore to be shipped to the company’s mill for processing.
In 2023, uranium prices continued to rise, reaching higher levels in 2024. Today, the cost of uranium is around $100 per pound. Additionally, the government has increased support for nuclear energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Given these conditions and owning the only fully licensed and operating conventional uranium mill in the United States, the Canadian-based Energy Fuels said it believes it is the right moment to grow uranium production in this country.
“Like half of our uranium right now comes from places like Russia and Kazakhstan,” Moore said. “We need to have an industry that’s able to supply again ... keeping these domestic capabilities intact is a good thing.”
The U.S. Department of Energy aims to enhance domestic uranium supply for advanced nuclear reactors as part of President Joe Biden’s investment agenda. Since its inception, Pinyon Plain Mine has faced resistance from different groups, such as the Havasupai tribe, the Grand Canyon Trust, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, among others.
Besides environmental activists and Indigenous communities, Coconino County supervisors are also going on the record to oppose risks associated with uranium mining.
In response to constituent demands to put an end to it and defend sacred sites, Indigenous communities and the environment, the five supervisors signed a resolution urging the closure of the mine.
The document requested, at a bare minimum, that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency implement more robust monitoring of the site and transportation routes.
Coconino County supervisors have heard numerous citizens’ concerns through public hearings, messages, calls and emails, indicating local worry about environmental and health impacts.
Many people shared personal stories, convinced of the relationship that previous uranium contamination in the area has with illnesses such as cancer in their families.
“In the event that there is an accident, our emergency services would be required to manage that clean up, or at least, that we coordinate the different agencies,“said Jeronimo Vasquez, chairperson of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, “and we don’t even know their safety plan.”
Energy Fuels’ emergency response plan is still in draft form and is expected to be approved soon, according to Moore.
“You have to handle it carefully, of course. And we do better than anybody else. But its hazards are very easily managed,” Moore said. “Basically, just get some loaders and start scooping it up and putting it back into another truck and haul it away.”
The truck’s fuel tank could pose a greater danger than the uranium in an accident scenario, Moore said. Fuel could cause a fire if it explodes and pollute the water if a spillage occurs. Uranium rock, he said, “would just sit there, and that’s much easier to clean up.”
Nonetheless, Indigenous communities have endured a history of uranium contamination that in many areas has yet to be cleaned up.
Judy Begay, vice-chair of the board of supervisors, talked about the contamination in Tuba City, where residents were forced to relocate.
“To this day, we’re still asking who’s supposed to clean it up,” Begay said.
The lack of attention from federal and state authorities to the issue causes anxiety among the population concerned about preventing new environmental disasters.
Even though the resolution has been passed, state laws stipulate that ADEQ cannot factor in the impact of haul truck travel on state and federal highways when granting or denying environmental protection permits, as the responsibility lies with the Arizona Department of Transportation.