#Uranium Mining

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

Earlier this year, Arizona lawmakers sued the Biden administration over the newly created Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument — arguing that the establishment of national monuments should be state matters and calling the move a “land grab.” Now, the Hopi, Havasupai, and Navajo Nation, whose ancestral lands overlap with the national monument, have intervened in the case and joined with the federal government to protect the area.

“Even if the Tribal Nations and federal government share similar goals and legal positions in this litigation, the United States cannot adequately represent the Tribal Nations’ sovereign interest,” the tribes’ intervention stated. 

The nearly one-million acre national monument protects areas tribes called home before being forcibly removed by the federal government, as well as places where tribal citizens hunt, pray, and gather foods and medicines. The area is also important for wildlife migration routes and potential burial sites. 

If successful, Arizona’s lawsuit would open Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni to more economic development, and specifically, livestock grazing and uranium mining. Currently, there is only one uranium mine in operation within the boundaries of the national monument. The lawsuit argues that limiting mining of uranium around the Grand Canyon will make the U.S. more dependent on acquiring it from foreign countries for energy purposes.

Arizona’s lawsuit is focused specifically on the Antiquities Act. Passed in 1906 to protect areas of scientific and historical significance, President Biden used the act to create Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni after decades of Indigenous advocacy focused on protecting the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. According to Arizona, the national monument ties up too much land, impacting revenue generation that could affect funding for schools as well as the economies of small towns in the area who have also joined in the suit against the federal government.

[reasonsforhope]

"In a major win for the traditional owners of Australia, the federal government has ordered the end of the land leasing program for the Jabiluka uranium deposit, ensuring that mining will never occur on the land owned by the Mirarr people.

At the same time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his coalition added it to the nearby Kakadu National Park, a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site twice the size of Yellowstone.

Various parties to the disagreement over the destiny of Jabiluka described the decision as “a great day for the Mirarr people, for Kakadu, the Northern Territory, and for Australia,” “a genuine and welcome surprise,” and “a reminder of the extraordinary privilege all of us have, to share this continent with the world’s oldest continuous culture.”

The dispute over Jabiluka dates back to 1991, when traditional owners, environmental groups, peace activists, and others protested the granting of a lease for Jabiluka to Energy Resources Australia (ERA) majority-owned by the Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Group.

Located in the Northern Territories, activism by Indigenous owners like the Mirarr and Djot has forced successive administrations to defer or avoid the actual development of the potential mine. This included a road blockade in 1998 during which 500 people were arrested.

The Jabiluka Long-Term Care and Maintenance Agreement signed in February 2005 gave the traditional owners veto rights over the future development of Jabiluka.

Key details about the history of Jabiluka to understand are that the land has been under mining leases for over 30 years, but they’ve never been developed. ERA was not seeking to renew the 10-year lease to try and push forward with uranium mining, as they acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land have the ultimate say as per the 2005 agreement.

ERA stated they sought renewal of the lease in order to secure the asset should the traditional owners ever change their minds. Jabiluka is one of the world’s richest and most extensive uranium deposits ever located.

In 1991, PM Bob Hawke declined to exploit the mine’s riches, as did the Gillard Administration in 2013, but with Rio Tinto and ERA never forsaking the mine as a lost cause, and the Albanese government planning to move forward with nuclear power expansion, the Mirarr and others felt that another, hopefully final push was necessary.

As a result, the federal government provided recommendations to the state government of NT that the will of the people should be respected, and that the lease should not be renewed.

“[It] means there will never be mining at Jabiluka,” Mr. Albanese was quoted as saying last Saturday. “This beautiful part of Australia is home to some of the oldest rock art in the world, a reminder of the extraordinary privilege all of us have, to share this continent with the world’s oldest continuous culture.” ...

Officials from the NT government said the decision was made based on the recommendations from the Coalition government in Sydney, saying that Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King advised that the most important position to respect was that of the Mirarr."

-via Good News Network, July 31, 2024

[plethoraworldatlas]

Sign the petition in the article

Every uranium mine ever operated in the United States has required toxic waste cleanup. We can’t let destructive, toxic mining operations destroy this precious desert monument.

Bears Ears, named for twin buttes that resemble a bear’s head peeking over the horizon, is home to stunning red rock vistas, desert wildlife including coyotes and the threatened Mexican spotted owl, and ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.

This place is priceless — but already, one site outside Bears Ears has become a “radioactive waste dump,” with more than 700 million pounds of toxic waste dumped there from past uranium projects.

Bears Ears was just recently restored to its rightful size after the Trump administration shrank its boundaries by 85% back in 2017. We can’t let it be put at risk again — especially not by new uranium mining right next door, which is devastating to land, water and air wherever it takes place.

The threat to Bears Ears

Atomic Minerals Corp. says it has a green light to drill 25 exploratory holes just outside Bears Ears in search of uranium. If the company finds uranium — and it likely will, given the “off the charts” radioactive rock revealed by old oil wells in the area — it’ll sell off claims to mine it.

What will that mean for this fragile desert ecosystem?

Open pits where topsoil has been ripped away to reveal ore. Chemicals pumped into the earth to dissolve uranium out of the surrounding rock. Radioactive waste left in pools when the mining and refining is done

[dougielombax]

May 1972.

French Nuclear reprocessing plant workers: Hmm, there’s something off about this uranium. I hope there’s nothing unusual going on in the mine we took it from over in Gabonese village of Oklo.

Kid Named Natural Nuclear Reactor:

This.

Was a NATURAL nuclear reactor.

Certified Natural Nuclear Reactor moment.

THIS.

Was a NATURAL nuclear reactor.

Seriously though go and read up about the Oklo reactor, it’s fascinating!

Crazy stuff.

[tomorrowusa]

President Biden signed into existence the 917,618 acre Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The new national monument covers three tracts of land important to indigenous people in Arizona.

Nearly 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon each year, but few are aware that the site has been sacred to Indigenous peoples in the region since time immemorial — and that the national park designation of the region essentially kicked them off their homelands a century ago.  On Tuesday, President Biden recognized this history by designating the nearly one million-acre region including the Grand Canyon and its surrounding areas as the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. The announcement follows a 15-year endeavor from a coalition of tribes to protect the region from uranium mining that has polluted the Colorado River. Baaj Nwaavjo means "where tribes roam" for the Havasupai Tribe, while I'tah Kukveni translates to "our ancestral footprints" in Hopi.  [ ... ] Former President Barack Obama previously banned new uranium mines in the Grand Canyon area in 2012, but his policy was set to expire later this year. This is the fifth new national monument established by the Biden administration to protect the country's natural landscapes, following the designation of the Avi Kwa Ame national monument in Nevada earlier in 2023.

Republicans, of course, don't like it.

The new designation permanently protects the region from uranium mining, which Republican leaders were quick to oppose, sending a letter to Biden claiming ​​that the protections created for the Grand Canyon would cause the U.S. to over-rely on foreign countries like Russia for uranium. However, The Guardian reported that advocates say the region only contains some 1% of the country's uranium reserves and that uranium is best mined elsewhere.

Contrary to what Republicans and far right media may claim, acreage for the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni was already in federal hands and does not represent a grab of state, tribal, or private lands. Amber Reimondo at Grand Canyon Trust writes...

National monument designations only apply to federally managed lands. The Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument designation thus adds a layer of protection to lands already managed by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management. No private, state, or tribal lands are included in the monument.  This added layer of protection is incredibly popular with the public. The monument has broad support across the Grand Canyon state. [ ... ] Recent polling shows that 75 percent of Arizona voters support designating lands immediately outside Grand Canyon National Park as a national monument to protect clean water supplies and Native American sites.

The three components of the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni are outlined in green on this map.

[elektroskopik]

The Dark History ‘Oppenheimer’ Didn't Show | WIRED

"The mining company typically built fenced-in compounds that resembled prison camps for the workers and their families; the company initially gave each family about 43 square feet—the size of a small garage—and weekly food rations. At work, miners sorted uranium ore by hand. One person described a piece of Shinkolobwe uranium as a block “as big as a pig.” It was “black and gold and looked as if it were covered with a green scum or moss.” He called them “flamboyant stones.”

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Now, nobody's saying that Aum Shinrikyo also conducted a nuclear bomb test at Banjawarn Station, but there was a loud noise in late May 1993, and there was a bright flash at the same time, and there is mineable uranium in exactly the same area, and the cult's psychotic leader was completely and utterly obsessed with building a nuclear bomb.

"Zealot: A Book About Cults" - Jo Thornely

[pinkyshow]

On Native Land: Pinky & Bunny pull 360 pounds of uranium tailings through Petrified Forest National Park. (2009)

This image is from our On Native Land series. Anyone caught removing even a small piece of fossilized wood from Petrified Forest National Park will get fined $325. But Pinky & Bunny aren't stealing souvenirs, they're just spreading deadly radioactive contamination (okay, that's not real uranium), which must not be a big deal because the U.S. Government and corporations have been doing that in Navajo country for decades and no one's punishing them.

[olowan-waphiya]

Never forget that the uranium comes from places like the Navajo Nation’s land

Never forget that these atomic drop sites have been ‘tested’ in places deemed disposable

And these places are going to be scarred by this destruction for as long as we will likely exist

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

The Navajo Nation doesn’t allow radioactive uranium ore to be transported through its lands without permission, but that’s exactly what a mining company began doing this week on roads administered by the state—which has no such restrictions.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren told tribal police to stop the trucks, and he issued an executive order Wednesday that called for the company to negotiate a hauling agreement with the tribe before any other trucks enter Navajo land. First Lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren announced a “No Illegal Uranium Hauling” walk along part of the transportation route in Cameron. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, under pressure for months from tribes and environmental advocates over the situation, subsequently brokered a deal with the company to hit pause.

In a Thursday night call, Hobbs told Nygren that shipments would halt until the company—Energy Fuels Resources—and the Navajo Nation hold discussions about safety concerns.

While Nygren is glad the governor acted, he wants to know how long transportation activities will stop.

“I don’t know what temporary hold means on the governor’s side,” Nygren said in an interview after the walk, held Friday morning. “Does that mean five days? Does that mean 10 days? Does that mean a month? … I hope temporary means six months, aligning with my executive order, so that we can have those discussions.”

Asked by Inside Climate News about timing, a Hobbs spokesperson said, “At this moment, there’s no additional information on when the end date will be.”

Energy Fuels Resources, the owner of Pinyon Plain Mine in Arizona and White Mesa Mill in Utah, confirmed it started hauling ore from one site to the other on Tuesday. In a statement issued before the agreement to pause that work, the company said this transportation is “safe and legal” and “in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

State law doesn’t bar that transport, but a Navajo law enacted in 2012 does. The situation cuts to the heart of U.S. history with Indigenous people: Treaty agreements that acknowledge tribal nations’ right to determine what happens on their lands are routinely ignored by states, companies and the federal government.

“Energy Fuels is subject to Navajo authority when accessing Navajo territory and can be excluded from Navajo territory for threatening the well-being of the Navajo People, although they likely claim they are beyond Navajo authority when on a state highway running through the Navajo reservation,” Gabe Galanda, an Indigenous rights attorney and the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman, said in an email. “The state of Arizona may likewise claim regulatory power over a state highway running through the Navajo reservation but that assertion affronts Navajo inherent sovereignty and territorial control.”

[slugbutter]

on uranium mining

just finished watching channel five's "havasupai uranium mine protest" coverage. the comment section was the perfect example of why nothing ever goes our way.

you've got people supporting the tribes preventing uranium mining. you've got people saying it's way better for the environment than fossil fuels & more efficient than other clean energy sources. (and besides! there’re safe ways to mine & transport uranium.) finally, you've got the nerds arguing over uranium vs. thorium for nuclear energy & it's like -

you. are. all. missing. the. point. here.

there's this (racist!) misconception about indigenous people. they think we're like fucking almond moms or the white girls that go barefoot & don't like to shower cause their b.o. is a gift from mother nature or something. like we're against industry/innovation for the hell of it. nah. if there was, for instance, a technologically advanced way to get all the plastic out of the ocean without injuring the marine life or the reefs, i'm all for that. that is technology working in concert with the beliefs of my people.

there are ways to safely mine & transport uranium. no one's saying there aren't.

are they 100% safe? no.

are they mostly safe? sure.

nothing’s 100% safe.

the real question is: are those methods being used? no.

next question: have those methods been used in similar instances to give natives (and anyone who lives in the surrounding area, really) any assurance that they’ll be okay? ask the navajo nation.

and that is the problem.

the people in charge are, for lack of a better phrase, "business-pilled." making a profit, as much profit as they can, is all that matters. and best practices can get in the way of that.

so, if they can have their way without getting caught? or having to suffer any consequences even if they do?

best believe they will.

we’re not even touching on the fact that the uranium being mined is being used as both a clean energy source & in the manufacturing of wmds– cause that’s a whole other can of worms. but to that, i just want to say, it never ceases to crack me tf up when america asks the people it’s colonised to give of themselves in order to line the pockets of the wealthy or further the agenda of their imperialist war machine.

like imagine someone breaks into your house, beats you up, & kicks you out. a second later, a notification pings your phone & you see a request from that same robber to donate to his gofundme so he can buy better lock-picking tools.

absurd. i know. but it’s actually happened? many, many times? and it’s still happening?

[dougielombax]

I don’t study energy or geology or nuclear physics (my MA is in history!) but I find this particular case study to be absolutely fascinating.

This. Was a NATURAL nuclear reactor.

Feel free to reblog.

[siliquasquama]

Oh, so Oppenheimer DID have blood on his hands, just not from the source he was thinking of.

Timeline.

Stage 1: A poisoning.

Stage 2: A poisoning.

Stage 3: A poisoning.

People die at every stage of the process: during the original extraction; during the use of the extracted material; and then during the eventual waste disposal.

1. Navajo, Pueblo, Ute, Hopi, Latine communities, and other local people get poisoned, during the initial extraction and mining of uranium, living in the site worst affected by poisoning of groundwater, radiation, and mining. (Majority of US uranium mines in Four Corners region; radioactive soil; hundreds of unrepaired mines; poisoned streams; largest single radioactive waste disaster in US in 1979 located on Navajo land.)

2. Navajo, Pueblo, Ute, Hopi, Latine communities, and other local people get poisoned during atomic bomb testing, living in the site worst affected by radiation after radioactive materials have been processed and manipulated. (Majority of nuclear weapons testing fallout and iodine-131 poisoning in Four Corners region.)

3. Navajo, Pueblo, Ute, Hopi, Latine communities, and other local people get poisoned,  during the disposal of radioactive waste, living in the site worst affect by radiation after the uranium has been processed and profited from and then returned to mills in the Four Corners region. (Majority of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive uranium waste, even when processed or used elsewhere across the continent, is then shipped back and stored in Four Corners region.)

Meanwhile, none of the profit/“wealth” is shared with people living in the region, where access to groceries, drinking water, utilities, etc. is extremely limited.

Some “unrelated” maps just tossed together:

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Desert ecoregions get designated as empty “wastelands” and therefore available for domination and extraction. Then people die. People die at every stage of the process: during the original resource extraction; during the refining and use of the extracted material; and then during the eventual waste disposal.

Just my impression, idk.

[gwydionmisha]

Biden to create monument around the Grand Canyon

[spotinkling]

Do you know Who invented Uranium?

Do you know Who invented Uranium? Do you like to see magic? Someone had said that if you look closely, there is magic in everything in the world. By the way I am not a good magician but sometimes I keep trying. I will show my magic later, first let’s talk about a special thing, if you keep this special thing in the open, it will automatically catch fire. Isn’t it surprising? fire in the air This…

[protectgrandcanyon]

Uranium Mine Gears Up Near Grand Canyon National Park

Uranium Mine Gears Up Near Grand Canyon National Park

Senate must pass permanent Grand Canyon mining ban before 117th Congress ends December 7, 2022 CONTACTS: Abbie S. Fink, on behalf of Havasupai Tribal Council, afink@hmapr.com, 602-903-8502 GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ – The Pinyon Plain Mine (formerly Canyon Mine) appears to be gearing up for uranium mining operations fewer than 10 miles from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Hundreds more…