Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. On any given day,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of trucks that pass through Cameron, Arizona.
Speaker 1: It's a small town of fewer than one thousand people
Speaker 1: on the western edge of the Navajo Nation, but Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Medals reporter Jacob Lawrence says that in late July there
Speaker 1: was one particular truck passing through town that raised concerns.
Speaker 2: What was unusual about it was this sign on the
Speaker 2: back that is yellow and red radioactive.
Speaker 1: The truck was coming from the Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine.
Speaker 1: It's one of a half dozen uranium mines that have
Speaker 1: recently opened or reopened in the southwestern United States as
Speaker 1: interest in nuclear power has surged. The truck was carrying
Speaker 1: the mine's first shipment of uranium ore to a processing
Speaker 1: plant in southern Utah, and to get there it would
Speaker 1: have to pass through the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 2: So it was noticed by a few resident who live
Speaker 2: in this small outpost town and it immediately provoked alarm.
Speaker 1: That's because the Navajo have a long complicated history with
Speaker 1: uranium mining. From the mid nineteen forties to the mid eighties,
Speaker 1: nearly thirty million tons of uranium ore were extracted from
Speaker 1: Navajo lands. They've been dealing with the health and environmental
Speaker 1: consequences ever since. So when those residents spotted that truck
Speaker 1: with its radioactive cargo, they fired off an email with
Speaker 1: a picture to the Navajo Nation President Boo Nigrin.
Speaker 2: And when he heard about this shipment going through Navajo land,
Speaker 2: he was adamantly opposed, and pretty soon after dispatched a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of tribal police to go and intercept the truck.
Speaker 1: Dozens of officers fanned out across the nation, which is
Speaker 1: about the size of West Virginia.
Speaker 2: They search Cameron, they search these other little encampments across
Speaker 2: Navajo Nation, and they're searching for this truck.
Speaker 1: The truck slipped out of Navajo Nation before the officers
Speaker 1: tracked it down, But Jacob says the police pursuit was
Speaker 1: just the start of the story.
Speaker 2: What happens from there is it effectively sparks a bit
Speaker 2: of an uproar across the nation and across the state.
Speaker 2: In some ways, it even reaches the office of the governor.
Speaker 2: The Navajo Nation is in sense that there's a uranium
Speaker 2: shipment crossing the territory. It's unusual for them, and they're
Speaker 2: saying that this shouldn't be alled, that the state needs
Speaker 2: to intervene. The governor needs to intervene to ensure that
Speaker 2: they're no further shipments.
Speaker 1: The company behind the mine, Energy Fuels, agreed to pause
Speaker 1: shipments until they could work out agreeable terms with the
Speaker 1: Navajo Nation, and now, after a six month standoff, the
Speaker 1: two sides finally struck a deal this week. I'm Sarah Holder,
Speaker 1: and this is the big take from Bloomberg News Today.
Speaker 1: On the show, a renewed interest in nuclear power dug
Speaker 1: up old wounds in the Southwest, and what the agreement
Speaker 1: between Energy Fuels and the Navajo Nation reveals about the
Speaker 1: human costs of clean power and the challenges they pose
Speaker 1: for the green energy transition Pinion Plane. The uranium mine
Speaker 1: that produced the ore at the heart of the standoff
Speaker 1: sits a few miles from the south rim of the
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. Bloomberg's Jacob Lawrence went to see it.
Speaker 2: It's an underground mine, so from surface level it doesn't
Speaker 2: look that big. It's about the size of a Walmart
Speaker 2: parking lot, and it's carved out of this little old
Speaker 2: pine forest that surrounds the Grand Canyon. And looks more
Speaker 2: like the bucolic topography of New England than what you
Speaker 2: would expect from the sprawling desert bad lands of the
Speaker 2: Grand Canyon.
Speaker 1: The mine's origins go back decades, so.
Speaker 2: It is discovered by prospectors in the nineteen seventies at
Speaker 2: a time when the price of uranium was very high
Speaker 2: and there was very strong incentive to find American uranium.
Speaker 1: After World War Two, the US was in a nuclear
Speaker 1: arms race against the USSR and also trying to sell
Speaker 1: the public on the peaceful Atom, the idea that nuclear
Speaker 1: energy could drive economic growth and provide near limitless clean power.
Speaker 1: But in the late seventies and eighties, the American public
Speaker 1: started to sour on nuclear power after high profile disasters
Speaker 1: at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Safety concerns cooled the
Speaker 1: demand for nuclear energy and for the uranium that powers it.
Speaker 1: Energy fuels CEO Mark Chalmers told Jacob he remembers what
Speaker 1: that moment was like for the industry.
Speaker 2: People just were like, no, we don't need nuclear power,
Speaker 2: we don't need go ahead and generate from coal, only
Speaker 2: generate from hydro natural gas.
Speaker 1: So over the next few decades there was no mining
Speaker 1: happening at Pinion Plane, That is until American interest in
Speaker 1: nuclear power started to boom again in the last few years.
Speaker 1: Concerns about global warming and surging energy demand from AI
Speaker 1: have made nuclear energy more appealing, and after the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two invasion of Ukraine, many countries needed an alternative
Speaker 1: to Russian oil and gas. Russia is also one of
Speaker 1: the world's largest producers of uranium, so as the US
Speaker 1: and other countries started to levy sanctions against it, the
Speaker 1: price of uranium started to climb, and Chalmers saw an opportunity.
Speaker 2: When was it that you decided that it was time
Speaker 2: to start producing? What had happened if they working? At
Speaker 2: that point the price of uranium had got up to
Speaker 2: about fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: So in twenty twenty two, Energy Fuels started the process
Speaker 1: of getting Pinion Plane ready for production. The price of
Speaker 1: uranium fluctuated a bit that year, but eventually it continued
Speaker 1: to rise.
Speaker 2: We see the price of uranium go from around twenty
Speaker 2: thirty bucks a pound to now about seventy bucks a pound.
Speaker 2: In the past five years, we've seen it go up
Speaker 2: about two hundred percent.
Speaker 1: When Jacob visited the mine, he got a tour from
Speaker 1: some of the miners who work there. They piled into
Speaker 1: an elevator essentially a metal cage, and started heading down
Speaker 1: twelve hundred.
Speaker 2: And thirty feet and the next level is basically the
Speaker 2: top of the or body. Okay, so our or body,
Speaker 2: you'll see.
Speaker 1: It's a blink of an eye.
Speaker 2: It's from this next level to the level we're going
Speaker 2: to get off at. It's only two hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: feet right, so it's about as deep as the Empire
Speaker 2: State Building is tall. It's dark and cavernous and muddy,
Speaker 2: and not for the claustrophobic, of which I am a
Speaker 2: little bit. So it was certainly a bit of an
Speaker 2: unsettling experience. And when you get down to the bottom
Speaker 2: of the mine, you walk through these tunnels that they
Speaker 2: sort of coil around the perimeter of this mine, all
Speaker 2: sort of winding around this long body of uranium ore
Speaker 2: that sort of shoots right down the middle, almost like
Speaker 2: a drill. It was only Sol's scrape it off and
Speaker 2: put it in. Really soon, we'll put it in what
Speaker 2: we call the Boulder Bay. And so the tunnels are
Speaker 2: slanted and you can see miners who are drilling into
Speaker 2: the sides of the walls there in search of higher
Speaker 2: grade uranium ore that's within this body.
Speaker 1: Last summer, Energy Fuels was ready to send its first
Speaker 1: shipment of uranium ore to the processing plant in Utah.
Speaker 2: And in order to do so, the only economical way
Speaker 2: to transport is through the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 1: Chalmers maintains that Energy Fuels had permission to use the
Speaker 1: federal highways that cut through the nation.
Speaker 2: And it's important to note that just you know, standards
Speaker 2: for shipping radioactive material like uranium ore have increased substantially
Speaker 2: over the past several decades, and you know, they felt
Speaker 2: quite confident that regardless of where they were going to
Speaker 2: drive their trucks, these were going to be safe transports.
Speaker 1: But what Energy Fuels didn't see coming was how the
Speaker 1: Navajo Nation would react.
Speaker 2: I don't know that they were expecting quite the pushback
Speaker 2: that they then received.
Speaker 1: After the break. Why the Navajo Nation pushed back so hard,
Speaker 1: and what that means for pinion planes future. The Navajo
Speaker 1: Nation has a long history with uranium mining, one Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: Jacob Laurin says still feels very present on the reservation today.
Speaker 2: It didn't take long when I was driving into the
Speaker 2: territory to start seeing signs and graffiti and murals across
Speaker 2: the area explicitly calling for, you know, either an end
Speaker 2: to uranium mining in the area or you know, please
Speaker 2: to clean up the mines that have been left idled
Speaker 2: in the area. It's really part and parcel with you know,
Speaker 2: some of the main issues that are top of mind
Speaker 2: for people who live in that area, given the history.
Speaker 2: They're adamantly opposed even to new outfits like energy fuels
Speaker 2: that you know, while they're introducing a mine outside of
Speaker 2: Navajo Nation, you know, they still they don't want to
Speaker 2: see any transportation, any shipping of this material through their land.
Speaker 1: At its peak, how big was uranium mining in the
Speaker 1: Navajo Nation? How many mines were out there?
Speaker 2: In total, more than five hundred uranium mines were built
Speaker 2: across the area. Again, these are small mines, so it's
Speaker 2: not these massive open pit mines. A lot of them
Speaker 2: are underground, almost mom and pop style uranium just like
Speaker 2: these little projects.
Speaker 1: And as the mind sprang up, jobs came with them.
Speaker 2: It quickly became a major source of employment on the reservation.
Speaker 2: A lot of Navajo people went to work at the mines,
Speaker 2: and you know, unfortunately, at that time, health and safety
Speaker 2: standards around mining was quite limited. Consequently, they also experienced
Speaker 2: pretty profound hardship as a result of being exposed to
Speaker 2: these mines for such a long period of time.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen eighties, when the uranium bubble burst, many
Speaker 1: of these mines were abandoned shut down without proper cleanup.
Speaker 2: The miners effectively pack their bags, pick up their shovels,
Speaker 2: and walk away from a lot of these operations.
Speaker 1: And tribal members are still dealing with health issues they
Speaker 1: believe were caused by the mining and the radioactive material
Speaker 1: that came with it.
Speaker 2: There have been studies that have linked a lot of
Speaker 2: these mines to cancer, kidney malfunction, genetic deformities within people
Speaker 2: who live in the area.
Speaker 1: In places like Cameron, people were literally surrounded by uranium.
Speaker 2: Somewhat astonishingly, a lot of the homes that were built
Speaker 2: on Navajo Nation were built using radioactive uranium waste that
Speaker 2: was repurposed into concrete. Wow. So if you live in
Speaker 2: a house around Cameron, there's a good chance that you're
Speaker 2: living in a home that was built with radioactive material.
Speaker 1: And while Jacob was in Cameron, he heard about other
Speaker 1: ways people there were exposed to the waste.
Speaker 2: When I was in Cameron, I spoke to a man
Speaker 2: who's about fifty years old named Ray Yellowfeather, and he
Speaker 2: grew up surrounded by these mines, and from his backyard
Speaker 2: he could see and he could walk to these abandoned mines.
Speaker 2: There was no fences, there was nothing that closed off
Speaker 2: the mines from his access or that warned him of
Speaker 2: the dangers. And so what he told me was that
Speaker 2: after school he would hang out with his friends when
Speaker 2: they were about ten or eleven, They would get their
Speaker 2: sleds and they would go climb to the top of
Speaker 2: these hills and they would slide back down, and for
Speaker 2: them it was a great time. They called them the
Speaker 2: Blue Hills. And every day they would go and they
Speaker 2: would play on them. And it was only years later
Speaker 2: that they really discovered, you know what it was that
Speaker 2: they were playing on.
Speaker 1: When Ray thinks about the mines that came to define
Speaker 1: his childhood, he can't help but wonder if they have
Speaker 1: something to do with the health issues that have plagued
Speaker 1: his family.
Speaker 2: Of his family members have passed away, including his mother,
Speaker 2: all from stomach cancer, and as with most of these diseases,
Speaker 2: it's hard to sort of link one to one what
Speaker 2: exactly is the cause of it. We do know that
Speaker 2: there are a substantial number of stomach cancer victims on
Speaker 2: Navajo territory. And you know, for him, he connects the
Speaker 2: dots and he thinks, you know, I grew up around
Speaker 2: these radioactive minds. My whole family grew up around these minds.
Speaker 2: It seems like this may have been the cause of
Speaker 2: what my family experienced.
Speaker 1: The Environmental Protection Agency has been working with the Navajo
Speaker 1: Nation to clean up mines and water contaminated with radioactive waste,
Speaker 1: but two decades after the EPA program began, only a
Speaker 1: small percentage of minds have been worked on at all,
Speaker 1: and Jacob says the legacy the industry is left on
Speaker 1: the land and on the Navajo people. Means many in
Speaker 1: the Navajo Nation oppose uranium mining and the nuclear movement.
Speaker 1: Even though the industry has tried to give assurances, it's
Speaker 1: hard for people to trust that this time around the
Speaker 1: practices are safe.
Speaker 2: Given the history. They're adamantly opposed even to new outfits
Speaker 2: like energy fuels that you know, while they're introducing a
Speaker 2: mine outside of Navajo Nation, you know, they still they
Speaker 2: don't want to see any transportation any shipping of this
Speaker 2: material through their land.
Speaker 1: So that Energy Fuels truck driving through the Navajo Nation
Speaker 1: last July filled with uranium. For the people that spotted it,
Speaker 1: it was a reminder of that painful history. That's why
Speaker 1: President Niagrin sent the police to try to intercept the truck,
Speaker 1: and it's part of why resolving the resulting stalemate was
Speaker 1: so delicate.
Speaker 2: One of the things that President Buniagrin said to me
Speaker 2: was that, you know, no matter how much a mining
Speaker 2: company tells them that their project is safe and that
Speaker 2: their shipments are safe, he says, that's what we were
Speaker 2: told back in the sixties and seventies, and you know,
Speaker 2: look where that got us.
Speaker 1: On Wednesday, Energy Fuel in the Navajo Nation announce the
Speaker 1: terms of their new deal. The mining company agreed to
Speaker 1: add additional protections to their trucks beyond those required by
Speaker 1: the Department of Transportation. Those include special cover systems to
Speaker 1: keep uranium or dust from escaping from the trucks, limiting
Speaker 1: transportation to certain routes and times, and not transporting or
Speaker 1: on days involving celebrations or public events on the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 1: The company also agreed to relocate ten thousand tons of
Speaker 1: uranium waste from abandoned mines across Navajo Land. In return,
Speaker 1: the company will be allowed to resume uranium shipments in February,
Speaker 1: but Jacob says the long road to resolution holds lessons
Speaker 1: for the rest of the uranium industry.
Speaker 2: This standoff really forecasts some of the fights that are
Speaker 2: to come with this kind of on shoring. While these
Speaker 2: mines are really sprouting up across the United States and
Speaker 2: in Western countries, they also are going to come into conflict.
Speaker 2: And I think that will see this happen again and again.
Speaker 2: And it's this I think perennial paradox with the mining industry,
Speaker 2: which is that it supplies incredibly important material, but you know,
Speaker 2: at a cost.
Speaker 1: This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by David Fox. It was edited
Speaker 1: by Tracy Samuelson and David Papadopoulos. It was fact checked
Speaker 1: by Adrian Atapia and mixed and sound designed by Alex Sugiura.
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Naomi Shaven. Our senior editor is
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Ponso. Our executive producer is Nicole beemsterbor Sage Bauman
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. If you liked this episode,
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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow