Iran and the United States are cautiously reengaging in diplomacy to discuss Iran’s desires to enrich uranium for nuclear energy. But both countries have sticking points. Read more from @ https://flip.it/HpI7AW #Iran#Uranium#Nuclear#Trump#Energy#US
The legacy and fate of de-regulation? #Pollution.
"The four abandoned mines are among an estimated 1,100 that dot the landscape in #NewMexico, including 500 on or near the #Navajo Nation, following decades of unregulated #uranium mining that left toxic pollutants on land and #water. The effect from a lack of regulation and ephemeral nature of many of the mines?
State officials cannot determine which companies built the mines and are therefore liable for cleanup." #NM https://sourcenm.com/2025/12/08/new-mexico-begins-cleanup-on-four-abandoned-uranium-mines/
"Uranium exports from Uzbekistan embody the paradox of modern “clean” energy: a resource that reduces France’s carbon footprint while leaving a toxic legacy in Uzbekistan, where it originates. " #Uzbekistan#france#uranium
Haute Vienne : « 32 ans après, on constate toujours une radioactivité qui n’est pas normale »
« La Criirad, la Commission de recherche et d’information indépendantes sur la radioactivité, épingle une nouvelle fois Orano (ex-Cogéma et Aréva). Les taux de radioactivité sont encore trop élevés, selon elle, aux abords des anciens sites d’extraction d’uranium dans le nord de la Haute-Vienne. Elle l’a redit ce jeudi lors d'une conférence-débat, relevés à l’appui. »
« Bruno Chareyron, ingénieur en génie énergétique et nucléaire, a effectué ces relevés le matin même sur la route de Lavaugrasse, au cœur des anciens sites d’extraction puis d’enfouissement des résidus d’extraction de l’uranium et des boues radioactives, et au bord du ruisseau des petites magnelles, en aval des anciennes carrières de Bellezane dans lesquelles ont été déversé 1,5 million de tonnes de boues radioactives. Ici, pour éviter la pollution, l’eau est pompée pour être traitée, puis reversée dans le cours d’eau. »
#NavajoNation Targeted Again for Sacrifice Zone: '#Energy Companies Preying on the People'
#Diné ask: Why is the Navajo Nation allowing energy companies to prey on communities and individuals?
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 23, 2024
"Dine' on the Navajo Nation are now targeted with a push to revitalize dirty coal energy, and a hydropower project that would pump precious water from their aquifer. Dine' question why the Navajo Nation government is allowing energy companies to prey on the communities and individuals.
"#LouiseBenally of #BigMountain [#KleeBenally's aunt] said the bottom line is greed. 'They want to eat up everything but, don't know that even their lives depend on it too. Poisoning the natural cycle will come back and destroy them too.'
"The new stampede of parasitic energy companies to the Navajo Nation comes at the same time that #radioactive#uranium trucks, covered only with tarps, are traveling across the Navajo Nation, from the #GrandCanyon uranium mine to the mill in the #WhiteMesaUte community in Utah.
"At the same time, more than 500 #UraniumMines, and scattered radioactive debris, remain on the Navajo Nation, and was never cleaned up by the U.S. government. Dirty coal mines and power plants left the legacy of death and #ForcedRelocation.
Navajo Council Plans Meeting on Revitalizing Coal Industry
"The Navajo Nation Council announced the public hearing, stating that on April 8 President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order entitled, 'Reinvigorating America’s #BeautifulCleanCoal Industry
and Amending Executive Order 14241' aimed at reversing past federal policies, to boost the coal industry and to strengthen the country’s national energy security, according to the White House.
"The public hearing is scheduled in Forest Lake Chapter on Friday, May 30. Louise Benally and her family spent their lives battling #PeabodyCoal and resisting forced relocation at Big Mountain on #BlackMesa. She said what Trump is doing is another chapter in the assault on the land and people.
" 'Pl 93-531 is a law created by #BarryGoldwater to target our rights to water and land base to be taken away. He developed that law so, with what Trump is trying to do is no different.'
" 'They want to eat up everything but, don't know that even their lives depend on it too. Poisoning the natural cycle will come back and destroy them too.'
" 'The American political system is not our government as traditional people which is where all our modern day problems come from in the form of an endless greed to keep eating up the earth and the natural resources.'
"Louise questioned Navajo Nation President #BuuNygren's support of Trump and coal mining in Washington, and Nygren's agreement for uranium trucks to cross the Navajo Nation. 'The Navajo Nation government is at a crossroads. Buu has been taken by Trump, and the people he is supposed to be responsible for are in question.'
" 'He has been taken into the bag of greed -- uranium and coal yet, there is no water. We want accountability.' "
Dine' Coalition Press Statement, #CensoredNews, April 17, 2025
WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- "A coalition of grassroots groups released a statement in response to recent announcements and actions by #NavajoNation President #BuuNygren regarding coal development, carbon market deals, and potential new mining projects.
"The coalition will host a Press Conference from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (MDT) on Monday, April 21, 2025, outside the Navajo Nation Council Chambers during the first day of the Navajo Nation Council’s Spring Session. Please bring a folding chair, water, hats, and sunscreen, and dress appropriately for the weather to keep yourself safe and comfortable during the Press Conference.
"Summary of full statement:
● We call on the Navajo Nation President to stop making deals that degrade our land, water, and future.
● We urge tribal leaders not to repeat historical mistakes with respect to uranium extraction: Leave this Nayee’, Łeetso, in the ground. The cleanup and remediation of hundreds of abandoned mines must be completed, prioritizing public health safety and ecosystem health.
● We stand against the transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation because it is inconsistent with the intent of the Navajo Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Persons and Materials Transportation Act of 2012, regardless of jurisdictional limits on our highways and roads.
● We steadfastly OPPOSE coal development, which negatively impacts the lands, water, and health of the Navajo people and contributes to #ClimateChange.
● We stand in protection of our water, health, traditional lifeways, Earth bundles (#Jish), and #MotherEarth.
"We call on all Diné #LandDefenders, #WaterProtectors, healers, young leaders, #matriarchs and warriors to stand together at WINDOW ROCK on APRIL 21, 2025. Together, we will make our voices heard and remind our Navajo Nation government that they are entrusted to make decisions that protect our People and protect our sacred homelands.
Statement from Diné Coalition of Grassroots Organizers in response to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren’s recent statements and actions regarding uranium, carbon markets, coal, and
other harmful extractive processes.
We are a coalition of Diné organizers, land defenders, water protectors, traditional knowledge holders, matriarchs, and young leaders. We are calling on our Diné people to stand united in protecting Mother Earth and our sacred homelands and waterways.
"The Nygren Administration’s recent statements and actions do not reflect the
will of the Diné People, and we call on our Navajo Nation Council to ensure that such actions are not taken in violation of our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.
"With the Trump administration’s announced intent to ramp up production of 'mission-critical' uranium,
the private energy offenders are again targeting Diné lands with no intention of ensuring public health, safety, or environmental health. Diné land and water protectors understand that energy offenders operate through systematic #racism that does not adhere to #PinyonPlain uranium mine,
radioactive haul trucks, in #GrandCanyon."
"The #UraniumMine is spewing out #RadioactiveDust for the world travelers who love this place, poisoning traditional medicine plants, and endangering the aquifer for future generations.
"This agreement for radioactive trucks, shown here [at the link below], is an extreme danger for everyone on the transport route -- #Havasupai, #Paiute, #Dine', #Hopi, #Ute, and the residents of #FlagstaffAZ.
"Remote Native communities have no way to deal with radioactive spills.
"The radioactive trucks are covered only with tarps and dump their loads in the #WhiteMesaUte community in southeastern #Utah."
"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.
"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.
"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai#Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,
"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'
"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.
"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"
TUBA CITY -- "#LeonaMorgan, Dine' co-founder of #HaulNo!, said the Navajo Nation is now "back peddling" by allowing radioactive uranium waste to be transported through Dine' communities. This radioactive transport from the #GrandCanyon means even more deadly waste for another Native community -- the #WhiteMesaUte community in #Utah.
"Now, with little or no information along the haul route, the Navajo government expects the Dine' Chapters on the route to each have an emergency preparedness plan. Leona asked if the Dine' communities are aware of this and whether the Navajo Chapters are certified to deal with radioactive emergencies.
"'Who are their First Responders?' Ultimately, Dine' will have to confront the Navajo President and the Navajo Department of Justice, she said.
'We were not included in that agreement,' Leona said of the agreement between the Navajo Nation and #Energy Fuels.
"'There was no free, prior and informed consent,' Leona said, quoting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [#UNDRIP]. 'The people in the communities were not consulted.'
"'How can they start transporting on February 12th, when there aren't even any checkpoints? We don't even have an #AirMonitoring system,' Leona said of the lack of preparation for radioactive
transport on the Navajo Nation.
Energy Fuels plans to pass through Navajo communities with six to ten trucks of radioactive waste,
beginning on Feb. 12, 2025.
"Leona urged communities to organize, and pointed out that Navajo Chapters can have their own checkpoints. With the new push for '#DrillBabyDrill,' by the U.S. President, the Navajo Nation faces an uncertain future, she said. The U.S. is investing money into the development of #CriticalEarthMinerals and investing in Energy Fuels mill at White Mesa Ute.
"'We need to push our government to do what we want -- not what the federal government wants.'
"'It's going to get worse because they think nuclear is clean energy,' Leona said of the push for alternative energy.
"The Navajo Nation's agreement with Energy Fuels means more dangerous radioactive dumping in the #WhiteMesaUte community. In the agreement, Energy Fuels states it will transport 10,000 tons of uranium-bearing cleanup materials from abandoned #UraniumMines within the Navajo Nation.
"Leona was recently voted by the Navajo Nation Council to serve on the Diné #UraniumRemediation Advisory Commission, in an advisory position to the Navajo President and Council.
"Speaking in #TubaCity on Saturday, Leona said Haul No! began in 2016 when it became known that the Pinyon Plain uranium mine would begin mining in the Grand Canyon. Now, there is the new battle as the Navajo Nation government has approved uranium transport through Navajo communities to the White Mesa Ute community.
"Energy Fuels #PinyonPlain Mine, and the mill in southern Utah, threaten Native communities throughout the region."
"Join residents who will be impacted by #EnergyFuels#uranium transport for a COMMUNITY WALK and gathering on February 22, 2025 in #TubaCityArizona. The event is organized and hosted by local Tuba City group #BiddyRoots with support from friends and family, #DinéCARE, #HaulNo!, #AntiUraniumMapping Project, and others. This walk is to provide information and discuss #UraniumTransport across #NavajoNation. We will walk together from the Junction of US-160 & Main Street to the Chapter House."
"The Environmental Protection Agency will move #uranium mine waste from #ChurchrockNewMexico to the #RedRock regional landfill where it can be safely stored forever.
"The federal agency signed an action memo to transport radioactive waste at the Quivira Mining Co. Churchrock Mine to a disposal site at the Red Rock regional landfill about six miles east of the Village of Thoreau. The cleanup will begin in early 2025 and continue for 6-8 years.
"For the Red Water Pond Road Community Association (#RWPRCA), which has advocated for waste removal since 2006, the decision marks a significant shift in addressing #UraniumContamination on Navajo land.
"'Removing the mine waste from our community will protect our health and finally put us back on a positive track to #Hózhǫ (balance),' said Teracita Keyanna, RPWPRCA executive committee member. 'I think this decision empowers #grassroots organizations like ours and our allies to continue to advocate and educate to clean up hundreds of abandoned uranium mines that threaten our #Diné communities every day.'
"RWPRCA President Edith Hood said the community has dealt with the impact of uranium mining since the late 1960s. Commercial mining began at the site under #KerrMcGee Corporation, which later became the #QuiviraMiningCompany. The operation extracted an estimated 1.3 million tons of uranium ore before closing in 1986. The Navajo Nation currently has more than 520 documented #AbandonedMines, with no disposal facilities for uranium waste within 350 miles of #TribalLands.
"'Many of us suffer chronic health problems and a degraded homeland as a result,' Hood said. 'We advocate for a regional approach to addressing remediation of nearly 100 abandoned uranium mines in the Eastern Navajo Agency. We are committed to making sure the removal of mine waste from our community does not threaten the health and safety of our Diné neighbors.'
"Previous attempts to address the waste proved unsuccessful. In 2011 and 2013, the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan to place 1 million cubic yards of waste from NECRM on top of the existing tailings pile located half a mile from RWPRC village. Effectively, neither of those wastes were removed from the communities.
"The #RedRockLandfill currently handles municipal waste from McKinley and Cibola counties and Navajo Nation communities as far away as Tuba City. The planned #UraniumDisposalCell will occupy a separate area of the 640-acre site adjacent to the shuttered #Escalante power plant.
"The Northwest New Mexico Regional Solid Waste Authority (#NNMRSWA), which owns the landfill, must show that its operations can protect #GroundWater, air and soil, while safeguarding public health for decades to come. The New Mexico Environment Department will oversee long-term monitoring of the site.
"Chris Shuey, who has documented mining and #milling impacts in the #Churchrock area for 40 years as an environmental health specialist at Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, said relocating uranium waste is essential for tribal communities.
"'Removing mine wastes from Navajo communities to engineered, regional disposal sites is a #PublicHealth imperative,' Shuey said, noting that more than half of all Navajo chapters have at least one source of unhealthy uranium exposure. 'The federal government must continue looking for suitable sites for long-term disposal of mine wastes to protect current and future Navajo populations.'
"'This decision will remove over 1 million cubic yards of waste that has haunted the #RedWaterPondRoad and #PipelineRoad communities for too long,' EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in a statement.
"'This solution is a compromise that will get #RadioactiveWaste in this area off of the Navajo Nation as soon as possible,' Navajo Nation President #BuuNygren said in the EPA statement. 'It’s not everything the three affected communities would wish for but it’s action in the right direction now rather than in the future. Most importantly, this will protect our people from harmful exposure.'"