US Uranium Mining Project Near Grand Canyon Sparks Controversy

The biggest uranium producer in the US is stepping up operations on a long-standing project that has mainly been inactive since the 1980s, just south of Grand Canyon National Park.

The development is progressing as uranium prices rise due to increased demand and global instability.

Uranium Mining Plans Near Grand Canyon Prompt Concerns

The Biden administration and other nations have committed to tripling the global capacity of nuclear power, guaranteeing that uranium will continue to be an essential commodity for a long time in the future.

Better regulatory monitoring is being demanded by environmentalists and Native American leaders, who are still concerned about the effects mining and milling operations would have on nearby communities in the West.

Producers say uranium production today is different than decades ago when the country was racing to build up its nuclear arsenal.

Those efforts during World War II and the Cold War left a legacy of death, disease, and contamination on the Navajo Nation and in other communities across the country, making any new development of the ore a hard pill to swallow for many.

New mining at Pinyon Plain Mine at the Grand Canyon's South Rim entry is within President Joe Biden's August-designated Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukv National Monument.

The work proceeded because Energy Fuels Inc. possessed legitimate rights. The mine will produce at least 2 million pounds (907,000 kilograms) of uranium, enough to power Arizona for a year with carbon-free electricity, on 17 acres (6.8 hectares) for three to six years.

Domestic uranium demand is rising as the worldwide outlook for clean, carbon-free nuclear energy improves and the US shifts away from Russian uranium. Energy Fuels, which is preparing two new mines in Colorado and Wyoming, has generated two-thirds of US uranium in the previous five years.

The US government bought $18.5 million in uranium concentrates from it in 2022 to build a strategic reserve for supply disruptions.

A coalition of Native Americans testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in late February, asking the panel to pressure the US government to overhaul outdated mining laws and prevent further exploitation of marginalized communities.

A group of hydrology and geology professors and nuclear watchdogs sent Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs a letter in January, asking her to reconsider permits granted by state environmental regulators that cleared the way for the mine, according to Independent.

Over Pinyon Plain Mine Amid Environmental Concerns

The courts have constantly dismissed legal challenges to stop the Pinyon Plain Mine, and Biden administration officials are cautious to comment beyond including steps to increase Native American tribal involvement.

Tribes in Nevada and Arizona are battling the federal government over lithium mining and renewable energy transmission line placement, marking another front in the energy development and holy land war.

Environmental assessments throughout the permitting process found that a mine near Grand Canyon National Park won't harm tourists, communities, or park groundwater or springs. Environmentalists doubt the Biden government will support nuclear power.

Under Trump, the US Commerce Department stated home production as necessary to national security to sustain the nuclear arsenal and fuel commercial nuclear reactors to generate energy. Nearly 20% of US power came from nuclear reactors.

The Biden administration is staying the course, undergoing a multibillion-dollar modernization of the nation's nuclear defense capabilities. The US Energy Department offered a $1.5 billion loan to the owners of a Michigan power plant to restart the shuttered facility, marking a first in the US Taylor McKinnon, the Center for Biological Diversity's Southwest director, said pushing for more nuclear power and allowing mining near the Grand Canyon "makes a mockery of the administration's environmental justice rhetoric."

In the west, tribes distrust uranium firms and the federal government, making nuclear power a tough sell to meet emissions objectives.

A Navajo Nation mine complex was recently added to the federal Superfund list, and the reservation's eastern boundary has the greatest radioactive accident in US history. Nuclear power has bipartisan support in Congress, but some contaminated community MPs are opposing, AP News reported.