Flagstaff: Radioactive Uranium Truck Driver in Medical Distress: Endangerment on the Haul Route

The driver of a radioactive uranium truck, covered only with a tarp, was in medical distress, parked at a restaurant in Flagstaff today before noon. The deadly trucks are transporting uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the homeland of Havasupai in the Grand Canyon, through Flagstaff and the Navajo and Hopi Nations, to the White Mesa Ute community in Utah. Photo by Shannonlynn Chester, Censored News.

Breaking News

Flagstaff: Radioactive Uranium Truck Driver in Medical Distress: Endangerment on the Haul Route

Article and photos by Shannonlynn Chester, Dine'

Censored News, May 8, 2025

French translation by Christine Prat

There is currently a truck hauling uranium with only a covered tarp parked behind Mary's Cafe in Flagstaff, Arizona on Highway 89.

The truck driver needed an ambulance. When I arrived, I was told he had been parked for a couple of hours already. It's 11:07 am and the truck is still there. This is a scary situation. This poses even further threats to the community in several ways. I've watched hundreds of individuals drive by in the time that I've been here watching this. Unless one is aware what these trucks hauling radioactive material looks like then everyone in this vicinity has unknowingly been put at risk.

The driver staggered back to his truck after being treated at the ambulance.
Screenshot from video by Shannonlynn Chester. 

The driver received EMT services then he staggered back to his truck and he was helped back in with a pat on the back. Even from afar, he does not look well! This is extremely concerning as he will potentially continue traveling north through many communities to White Mesa Mill in Utah.

PLEASE be aware, be vigilant and take extreme caution traveling on Highway 89 from Flagstaff along the haul route.

This isn't safe. There isn't any accountability to us, "the public" at all. What I watched unfold for over an hour and a half is extremely concerning and we should not be allowing this. 

UPDATE by Censored News

The Navajo Nation, law enforcement and the mainstream media downplayed the risks today to Navajos and everyone on the haul route. This comes after Navajo President Buu Nygren cut a secret deal with Energy Fuels for the uranium transport trucks to pass through the Navajo Nation.

Nygren released a statement about the sick truck driver. Nygren said the Navajo Nation EPA coordinated with the Coconino County Sheriff's Office and the Flagstaff Fire Department. The Fire Department conducted radiation scans on the truck and said that the radiation levels at the location were within safe limits.

Three other uranium ore trucks at the designated inspection site were allowed to pass and continue to the White Mesa Mill, Nygren said.

Energy Fuels notified the Navajo Nation EPA at 11:40 a.m. that the fourth truck -- whose driver was sick -- returned back to the Pinyon Plain Mine, Nygren said.

Coconino County Sheriff Bret Axlund said the truck driver had "flu-like symptoms" and refused medical transport from the site. An ambulance was called to the site, just north of Flagstaff, in the area of Hwy 89 and Townsend Winona Road.

Earlier, the Navajo Nation Council said President Nygren entered into a secret deal with Energy Fuels, without the knowledge or consent of the Navajo Council, to allow the uranium ore trucks to pass through the Navajo Nation from the Grand Canyon mine enroute to Utah.

More than 500 uranium mines and scattered radioactive waste remain on the Navajo Nation, which the U.S. never cleaned up after the Cold War, resulting in widespread cancer for Dine'.

An ambulance was called when the driver of this radioactive uranium ore truck became ill on the north side of Flagstaff this morning. Photo by Shannonlynn Chester, Censored News.

This uranium truck was returned to the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the Grand Canyon after the truck driver became sick and an ambulance was called to the site, on the north side of Flagstaff. The deadly uranium transport route beyond Flagstaff passes through the Navajo and Hopi Nations before arriving at Energy Fuels uranium mill in the White Mesa Ute community in southeastern Utah. Photo today by Shannonlynn Chester.

Energy Fuels uranium transport trucks, covered only with tarps, transport uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the Grand Canyon to the White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah. The deadly trucks begin the transport in the homeland of Havasupai in the Grand Canyon, and pass through the City of Flagstaff, and  communities of Hualapai, Paiute, Navajo and Hopi before arriving at Energy Fuels uranium mill in the White Mesa Ute community in southeastern Utah. -- Censored News

#endnuclearcolonialism #nonukes #keepitintheground #cleanupthemines #nomorecancer #haulno #protectsacredsites #defendthesacred

A Powerful Voice from Chile's Desert on Lithium Mining and Protection of Mother Earth

A Powerful Voice from Chile's Atacama Desert on Lithium Mining and Protection of Mother Earth

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 8, 2025

NEW YORK -- "Land is not a resource but a source of life," said an Indigenous representative from the Atacama Desert in Chile, in her statement to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

"The expansion of mining for critical minerals such as lithium and others without consent, and without respect for our fundamental collective rights, is a serious problem," she said, pointing out that it is an urgent need to confront the climate crisis and energy transition.

"We are not enemies of development, we are not obstacles for the future, we are guardians of the balance,  we are living memory, we are solutions of the future. We want an energy transition that respects and acknowledges our Indigenous Peoples and the rights of Mother Earth."

International investments continue to finance extractive process that violate the peoples rights, pollute the water, fragment their communities and transform their territories as these destroy ecosystems, she said.

Indigenous Peoples rights must be respected and recognized. Free prior and informed consent must be a mandatory condition before any projects in Indigenous territory, in accordance with the law in Chile, and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Climate funding investment policies must include criteria ensuring human rights and safeguarding the Indigenous communities, and must be supervised by independent mechanisms to ensure transparency in order to avoid economic marginalization, she said.

"It is important to recognize the important role of Indigenous peoples in the protection of the planet."

There must be protocols of Indigenous knowledge, and it is important that Indigenous Peoples participation is guaranteed in all areas related to climate justice.

"We are not enemies of development, we are not obstacles for the future, we are guardians of the balance, we are living memory, we are solutions of the future. We want an energy transition that respects and acknowledges our Indigenous Peoples and the rights of Mother Earth."

'Will lithium mining kill Chile's deserts?" A protest walk across the desert opposing the lithium mining using the precious water in the desert. Watch the video at The Guardian. https://lithiumworlds.com/mining-indigenous-territories/