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| Photo courtesy Unicorn Riot |
Ute at Utah State Capitol Today: Stop the Uranium Mill Poisoning our People
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 4, 2024
The White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah, owned by Energy Fuels of Canada, is bringing in dangerous radioactive waste from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the Grand Canyon, and the countries of Japan and Estonia. Radioactive waste too deadly to remain at the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada was dumped at the mill.
"Today members of the White Mesa Ute community and supporters are rallying at the Utah State Capitol against uranium transport and processing on Indigenous lands," Unicorn Riot reports on Friday.
The White Mesa Ute Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe co-organized today's rally demanding the closure and clean up of the White Mesa Uranium Mill in southern Utah.
The radioactive materials from Japan now dumped at the White Mesa Mill include uranium ores, ore samples, cores, test-hole samples, spilled ore material, soil, rock, uranium-loaded resins and associated filter-bed sands that were used to treat water contaminated with uranium at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency research sites.
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(Map) New map alert! A recent analysis of fatal vehicle accidents along the haul route uranium trucks travel between Canyon Mine (renamed Pinyon Plain Mine), a uranium mine near the Grand Canyon, and the White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah shows an elevated risk along long stretches of the more than 300-mile route, especially on the Navajo Nation. -- Grand Canyon Trust
"Today members of the White Mesa Ute community and supporters are rallying at the Utah State Capitol against uranium transport and processing on Indigenous lands," Unicorn Riot reports on Friday.
The White Mesa Ute Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe co-organized today's rally demanding the closure and clean up of the White Mesa Uranium Mill in southern Utah.
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| Photo courtesy Greenaction |
(Photo) "Reception and dinner for White Mesa Ute Community members, Greenaction, and allies in Salt Lake City yesterday, October 3rd. We are grateful for the powerful discussions and strong community!" Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice.
"Today we head to the State Capital for a rally to protect White Mesa from the hazardous uranium mill contaminating their community!
"No toxic waste in White Mesa!" Greenaction said.
(Photo) Yolanda Badback, Ute Mountain Ute Tribal member, speaks at the reception. -- Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice.
Grand Canyon Trust reports, "Radioactive materials from two nuclear energy program research facilities in Japan run by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have arrived in the United States, bound for processing and disposal at the controversial White Mesa uranium mill near Bears Ears National Monument."
"Today we head to the State Capital for a rally to protect White Mesa from the hazardous uranium mill contaminating their community!
"No toxic waste in White Mesa!" Greenaction said.
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| Photo courtesy Greenaction |
Energy Fuels is now bringing in radioactive ore from its uranium mine, Pinyon Plain, in the Grand Canyon. The mine, in the Havasupai homeland, is threatening the aquifer and contaminating medicine plants with radioactive dust.
The deadly haul route of radioactive trucks from northern Arizona to southeastern Utah endangers Supai, Paiute, Dine', Hopi, and Ute, and others living and visiting the region.
White Mesa Ute testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in March, and asked for help to shut down the mill.
"Our ancestors remains were desecrated to build the mill," Anferny Badback, Ute Mountain Ute at White Mesa, told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington.
Badback testified that Energy Fuels uranium mill has contaminated the groundwater, plants, birds, wildlife, and air in his community in southeastern Utah.
The young people are getting asthma, and the people can no longer use their spring water for ceremonies. Ute must buy bottled water to drink, and no longer hunt because of the contamination. Now, the mill is bringing in international waste and has become a low-level radioactive waste repository, because of the lax standards of the state of Utah.
"We want the mill to be shut down," Badback told the Commission. "Please help us."
The mill is bringing in radioactive waste from Japan and Estonia, and brought in nuclear waste too deadly to leave at the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada.
Radioactive Waste Dumped at the Mill from Other Countries
The radioactive waste has also been dumped here from Estonia in Europe. In 2021, the mill received over 1.4 million pounds of low-level radioactive waste from NPM Silmet OÜ, a rare earth metals processing plant in Estonia. In 2023, the mill received about 660 metric tons of radioactive material from Estonia.
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Read more about the Energy Fuels uranium mill poisoning the White Mesa Ute homeland:
Supai, Navajo, Ute, Lakota testify on uranium exploitation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
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