Following outrage over a company transporting uranium ore across the Navajo Nation without notification, the company agreed to temporarily halt the movement of ore. This was in part due to intervention by Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs.

The pause in transports gives time for negotiations between Energy Fuels Resources, Inc. and the Navajo Nation.

The Navajo Nation has prohibited the transportation of uranium ore across its lands since 2012.

Energy Fuels Resources was moving the ore from a mine site in Arizona near the Grand Canyon to the only remaining operating conventional mill in the country—the White Mesa Uranium Mill in southeast Utah south of Blanding and near both Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo lands. The mill is also in the area of the ancestral homelands of the Pueblo people of New Mexico in the vicinity of Bears Ears National Monument.

According to a press release from the Navajo Nation, two trucks carrying uranium ore reached the mill.

The transport of uranium across Navajo lands came into the spotlight earlier this week when President Buu Nygren announced through social media that he had instructed the Navajo Nation Police Department to escort the trucks transporting uranium ore off of the reservation. In the social media post, Nygren explained that he had just learned of the trucks that were hauling uranium ore.

The hauling of uranium ore was not entirely unanticipated. Earlier this year, Navajo leaders wrote to President Joe Biden asking for his assistance in an effort to stop the transports from taking place. While the tribe has banned the transport of uranium ore across their lands, there are state and federal rights-of-way that prevent the Nation from fully blocking the transport.

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Nevertheless, the Navajo Nation expected at least some advanced notice.

In a press release, Nygren said that it was disappointing that “we were under the assumption that we would get 10 days or two weeks heads up if this was going to happen. Then, at the same time, we were made aware that transportation was not going to happen until October or November.”

“They snuck through the Navajo Nation and they made it onto the Utah side, outside of 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 very inappropriate.”

The company maintains that it has taken all necessary steps to ensure the safe transport of uranium and, in statements to the media, the CEO Mark Chalmers highlighted the history of moving uranium ore across northern Arizona. He said that more dangerous materials are transported on roads on a daily basis.

Uranium is primarily used for nuclear energy and some say it is a key resource to reducing emissions and preventing some of the worst potential climate change outcomes. However, not all environmental advocates or scientists agree on what role nuclear energy should play in the future. Some oppose the continued use of nuclear energy for reasons like the lung cancer risks associated with mining, costs compared to renewable sources like wind and solar, and the risks associated with nuclear waste, which does not currently have a permanent repository in place.

The lung cancer associated with mining of uranium ore can be seen on the Navajo Nation. That is only one of the ways that the legacy of uranium extraction continues to impact the tribe.  

For many of the Navajo Nation residents, uranium ore brings with it painful memories of disease and exploitation. Hundreds of abandoned uranium mines dot the Navajo Nation landscape. Piles of radioactive waste remain unremediated.

On Wednesday, Nygren issued an executive order banning the transport of uranium ore across Navajo Nation without the tribe’s consent. That will remain in effect for six months. 

Uranium mine and mill cleanup in New Mexico

As the Navajo Nation leadership discussed what to do about the shipments of uranium ore across their lands, New Mexico lawmakers sat down on Thursday to hear a presentation by the New Mexico Environment Department about the ongoing efforts to remediate uranium sites, many of which are on tribal lands.

Miori Harms, NMED’s uranium mine reclamation coordinator, presented this to the Indian Affairs Committee during its meeting in Sheep Springs, a small Navajo Nation community in San Juan County.

Harms said there are uranium mine and mill sites widely distributed throughout New Mexico, however the largest concentration is within what is known as the Grants Mineral Belt in the northwest region of the state. 

Related: Navajo Nation community pushes to have uranium mine waste moved to nearby landfill

In 2022, the legislature passed a law—House Bill 164—that outlines actions that NMED and the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department must take to clean up abandoned uranium mines and mill sites. 

As part of that legislation, the two state agencies developed a website known as the formerly operating uranium mine and mill sites dashboard. This shows the location of known sites throughout the state. It also allows people to search based on surface land ownership.

“So this came out in January of this year. And it depicts all of the sites that we have information for that include both neglected sites as well as permitted sites,” Harms said as she showed the dashboard to lawmakers.

The legislation also led to the creation of the Uranium Mine Reclamation Revolving Fund, however Harms said no money has ever been appropriated to that fund. Rep. Anthony Allison, D-Upper Fruitland, was one of HB 164’s sponsors and he expressed some frustration that he had not known there were no appropriations to the fund. Allison said that had he known in the past, he could have fought to get money for the fund as he sits on the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Harms said that future funds could be used for site assessments, safeguarding, surface reclamation, groundwater remediation and monitoring.

Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, spoke about her time as the economic development director for Cibola County in the early 2000s. She spoke about concerns about the environment, including water quality, and human health.

She said even years later people are still suffering from health conditions due to the legacy of uranium mining and milling.

“It just really worries me because autoimmune diseases and cancers are very high in that area,” she said, asking if some of the public health data could be used to spur action at the federal level to remediate the sites.

This history of health and environment problems caused by the legacy of uranium mining and milling is behind Nygren’s attempts to stop the transport of ore across the Navajo Nation lands. And it isn’t just the Navajo, or Diné, people who could be impacted by these transports. The route also crosses the ancestral lands of the Havasupai Tribe and portions of the Hopi lands.

After learning about the trucks hauling uranium ore, Hobbs instructed the Arizona Division of Emergency Management and Assistance to work with Navajo Nation law enforcement and emergency management teams to develop an emergency response plan just in case there is some sort of road incident involving one of the trucks.

Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch said in a press release that the tribe is working to develop regulations that will allow for uranium ore to safely be moved across the reservation.

“Even though there is a state right of way for some of the path that the trucks will be taking across the Nation, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any right to regulate that territory,” she said. “It’s still Navajo trust land. It’s still Navajo sovereign territory.”