The Navajo Police Department says a uranium ore transport semi-truck rolled over Tuesday afternoon on U.S. 160 near Black Mesa on the Navajo Nation.
The truck was returning from the White Mesa Uranium Mill in Blanding, Utah, where it had delivered uranium ore when the incident occurred, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
“So the actual trailer bed was empty at the time of the rollover, and in that case, HAZMAT teams from [Arizona Department of Transportation] and DPS did not respond,” says Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bart Graves.
This was the second vehicle accident involving a uranium hauling truck since the mining company Energy Fuels Resources began transporting ore across the Navajo Nation in July 2024.
In May, a haul truck was sideswiped on its way from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine, which Energy Fuels owns, to the Utah mill.
Leona Morgan, member of the Navajo Nation and co-founder of the environmental group Haul No!, called for the Arizona Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the latest accident. She says ADOT and other municipalities need to put stricter regulations in place for the trucking of uranium ore.
“I think that's something ADOT needs to do,” says Morgan. “I think [also] the counties, the municipalities, City of Flagstaff, and then, of course, the chapter houses all along the route. This is up to the local communities to start raising their concerns and putting more stronger regulations in place, larger fines and fees.”
In January 2025, Energy Fuels and the Navajo Nation entered into an agreement about the hauling of uranium across the tribal nation, which is home to over 500 abandoned uranium mines, many of which are relics of the Cold War era.
The agreement says that transporting uranium is prohibited during inclement weather, in addition to holidays and days when fairs are operating.
On Tuesday morning, monsoon thunder storms prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood watch for a large swath of northern Arizona, including the Black Mesa area.
No other vehicles were involved in Tuesday afternoon’s crash, but Navajo Police say weather was “determined as a factor in this accident.”
According to DPS, the incident occurred in heavy rain.
“The call says the driver may have lost control during a heavy downpour,” Graves says. “Our commercial vehicles unit specifically investigates every collision involving a commercial vehicle.”
The vehicle's driver suffered minor injuries and was transported to a hospital in Kayenta.
Curtis Moore, Energy Fuels’ senior vice president of marketing and corporate development, says the driver was discharged the same day.
Moore tells KNAU that Energy Fuels and Navajo Police will investigate the incident, but declined to provide more information.
The crash has only deepened local advocates’ concerns over uranium mining in the region.
“This is precisely what our communities were worried about,” Robyn Jackson, executive director of DINÉ C.A.R.E, said in an email to KNAU. “Energy Fuels needs to end their operations immediately and discontinue possible risk to our region and environment."
