Regarding UUUU.
I am struggling with the morals of the situation. The company swears they have a safe method that wll not affect the drinking water... And I want to believe them. The US Gov signed off on the permit process, ususally that fact would be the blessing but there is political pressure to get Nuclear going...
Numerous legal challenges aimed at stopping the Pinyon Plain Mine
repeatedly have been rejected by the courts, and top officials in the Biden administration are reticent to weigh in beyond speaking generally about efforts to improve consultation with Native American tribes.
It's just the latest battle over energy development and sacred lands, as tribes in
Nevada and
Arizona are fighting the federal government over the mining of lithium and the siting of renewable energy transmission lines.
The Havasupai are concerned mining could affect water supplies, wildlife, plants and geology throughout the Colorado Plateau, and the Colorado River flowing through the Grand Canyon and its tributaries are vital to millions of people across the West.
For the Havasupai, their water comes from aquifers deep below the mine.
The Pinyon Plain Mine, formerly known as the Canyon Mine, was permitted in 1984. With existing rights, it was grandfathered into legal operation despite a 20-year moratorium placed on uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region by the Obama administration in 2012.
The U.S. Forest Service in 2012 reaffirmed an environmental impact statement that had been prepared for the mine years earlier, and state regulators signed off on air and aquifer protection permitting within the last two years.
“We work extremely hard to do our work at the highest standards,” Moore said. “And it’s upsetting that we’re vilified like we are. The things we’re doing are backed by science and the regulators.”
The regional aquifers feeding the springs at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are deep — around 1,000 feet (304 meters) below the mine — and separated by nearly impenetrable rock, Moore said.
State regulators also have said the area's geology is expected to provide an element of natural protection against water from the site migrating toward the Grand Canyon.
Workers talk at the Energy Fuels Inc. uranium Pinyon Plain Mine Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, near Tusayan, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Still, environmentalists say the mine raises bigger questions about the Biden administration’s willingness to adopt favorable nuclear power policies.