Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued an executive order Wednesday requiring tribal authorization before uranium ore can be transported across the nation.
The order came hours after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said her office is exploring options the day after Energy Fuels Resources Inc. began transporting uranium ore from its Pinyon Plain Mine just south of the Grand Canyon to the White Mesa Mill in southern Utah.
Navajo Nation Chief of Police Ron Silversmith said Navajo police were patrolling roads to prevent ore trucks from crossing the nation.
“We're a land of laws,” President Nygren said. “If you're going to smuggle uranium into our borders and across our Nation and outside, that's pretty much illegal. [...] I'm very disappointed that this is happening in this day and age.”
Mayes said hauling had begun without promised notice to local and Navajo Nation officials, and without providing an emergency plan, adding that the situation was “unacceptable.”
“My office is currently researching our options, but I remain deeply committed to doing everything in my power to protect the health and safety of all Arizonans. Hauling radioactive materials through rural Arizona, including across the Navajo Nation, without providing notice or transparency and without providing an emergency plan is unacceptable,” said Mayes in a statement. “And it is also important to remember that the Navajo, Hopi and Havasupai Nations are sovereign nations and have the right to protect the health and safety of their people.”
Mayes said she spoke to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch and Coconino County Supervisor Patrice Horstman about the situation.
And Mayes added she remains concerned the mine’s operation may impact groundwater resources on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
For its part, Energy Fuels reported the company has gone “above and beyond” the legal requirements to inform and engage local and tribal communities and officials prior to the start of ore hauling, including at a meeting earlier this month.
“It was at these meetings where we provided extensive information on legal requirements, safety, and emergency response,” Energy Fuels President and CEO Mark Chalmers said in a statement. “We have gone far above-and-beyond the legal requirements, and we look forward to future dialog on these important issues.”
On Tuesday, Nygren told KNAU that he had sent Navajo Nation Police to intercept and turn back ore trucks after he had learned hauling began.
Even so, ore trucks appeared to have reached their destination unimpeded Tuesday. Navajo police only encountered empty trucks returning to the mine, officials said.
Nygren said he plans to do the same if hauling continues, and is expecting a legal confrontation between the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels Inc.
The Navajo Nation banned the transportation of uranium ore across its land in 2012. But the roads used to transport the ore are under the jurisdiction of state and federal governments.
The Pinyon Plain mine has long been controversial in northern Arizona and began operation earlier this year.
