Frontier Group: Renewed Interest in Uranium Mining Threatens Waterways and Wildlife

Published January 20th, 2025

Uranium has applications in industry and medicine, for nuclear weapons manufacturing, and as a fuel source for nuclear power. While the U.S. was a major producer of enriched uranium throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the nation has not produced enriched uranium domestically since 2013. In the decade since, U.S. uranium supply has depended on imports from Russia and Europe. However, following the invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. banned the import of Russian uranium.

To replace the loss of Russian uranium imports – and to meet rising electricity demand – the Biden administration embraced efforts to strengthen U.S. nuclear supply chains, providing more than $3.4 billion to support domestic uranium enrichment capabilities through the Inflation Reduction Act and FY24 spending bill.

After decades of flat or falling growth rates, electricity demand in the U.S. has begun to surge in the last few years. Electricity consumption is projected to grow 24-29% by 2035, and much of that demand is anticipated to come from new energy-intensive computing practices at U.S. data centers such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency mining.

Keying in on this potential nuclear renaissance and a boost in federal support, mining companies are racing to provide fuel for new nuclear reactors and soon-to-be reopened nuclear plants like Three Mile Island – the site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history. This fuel is destined to add to the highly radioactive waste currently being stored at 70 sites in 35 states.

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UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy & The Environment: Monograph Series – Project 2025: Implications for Climate and the Environment

This Monograph reviews President Trump’s Executive Order 15146, which reflects policies set forth in Project 2025 by declaring a “National Energy Emergency” and directing the heads of various federal agencies and departments to “identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them, as well as all other lawful authorities they may possess, to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting,
production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands.”

The Executive Order (“EO”) is designed to promote domestic fossil fuel production and undermine renewable energy production. This Monograph evaluates possible legal challenges to the emergency declaration itself and to actions related to, and carrying out, the declaration.

On April 23, 2025, just as this Monograph was nearing completion, the United States Department of Interior (“DOI”) announced three separate, but related actions taken in response to the Executive Order, invoking emergency authorities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). DOI’s three actions were “designed to expedite the review and approval, if appropriate,” of the kinds of energy projects mentioned in the EO.

The Monograph has been augmented to include analysis addressing the lawfulness of all three of these DOI actions. We conclude that they are not lawful.

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“Because uranium is carried by water in solution-like dissolved salt or sugar-it is easily transported far from its original source. Uranium also can be present as a solid-attached to clays and mineral coatings on sand and silt. Sand and silt particles carrying uranium can be suspended in moving water and transported during floods. Radioactivity in sediment may also be transported in floods”

A 1994 USGS study created during a more environmentally aware administration and prepared in cooperation with the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation takes you through evidence of how uranium mining disasters can travel far from their source within a watershed like the Chama Basin Watershed.

New Mexico Geological Society: The Environmental Legacy of Uranium Mining and Milling in New Mexico

Bruce Thomson, 2021

Between 1951 and 1989, the Grants mining district of northwestern New Mexico produced more uranium than any other district in the United States. Almost 250 mines were located in New Mexico, consisting of both open pit and underground mines. Open pit mines, especially the large Jackpile–Paguate Mine on the eastern flank of Mt. Taylor, left a large area of open pits and exposed strata that remains largely unremediated. The Jackpile–Paguate Mine is now a Superfund site. Underground mines had a large impact on regional aquifers, but groundwater levels have largely recovered after closure.

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EPA: Radioactive Waste from Uranium Mining and Milling

Uranium eventually decays to radium. Radium decays to release a radioactive gas
called radon. Open pit uranium milling and in situ mining sites do not pose a significant radon risk to the public or to miners; the radon disperses into the atmosphere. In the past, the waste rock produced by underground and open pit mining was piled up outside the mine. This practice has caused problems, including on Navajo lands where more than half of the small, abandoned uranium mines from the middle of the 20th century and their wastes remain. Wind can blow radioactive dust from the wastes into populated areas and the wastes can contaminate surface water used for drinking. Some sites also have considerable groundwater contamination.

Uranium mining methods:

• Mining: When uranium is near the surface, miners dig the rock out of open pits. Open pit mining strips away the topsoil and rock that lie above the uranium ore. When uranium is found deep underground, miners must dig underground mines to reach it. The rock is then removed through underground tunnels.
• In situ leaching: “In situ” is Latin for “in place.” In situ leaching ISL), or in situ recovery (ISR), is the process of pumping chemicals into groundwater to dissolve uranium in porous rocks (typically sandstones). When uranium is located in an area saturated by groundwater, at relatively greater depths and generally lower concentrations than for conventional mines, in situ leaching may be used. After the chemicals are put into the ground, the liquid containing uranium is pumped to the surface through a network of wells and then processed to recover the uranium. This has become the most commonly used uranium extraction method in the United States in recent decades, especially in Texas and Wyoming.

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National Laboratory of Medicine / National Center for Biotechnology Information: Potential Environmental Effects of Uranium Mining, Processing, and Reclamation

Uranium mining, processing, and reclamation (in Virginia) have the potential to affect surface water quality and quantity groundwater quality and quantity, soils, air quality, and biota.

Tailings disposal sites represent significant potential sources of contamination for thousands of years, and the long-term risks remain poorly defined. (Defined: The solid radioactive wastes that are left over from the milling processes are called tailings and the liquid wastes are called raffinates. Mill tailings and raffinates are stored in specially designed ponds called impoundments. The tailings remain radioactive and contain hazardous chemicals from the recovery process. Source: EPA)

Significant potential environmental risks are associated with extreme natural events and failures in management practices. Extreme natural events (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes, intense rainfall events, drought) have the potential to lead to the release of contaminants if facilities are not designed and constructed to withstand such events or fail to perform as designed.

Surface Water Effects

Disturbances of the land surface associated with uranium mining (in Virginia) would be expected to have significant effects on both on-site and downstream surface water conditions. These disturbances affect both surface water quantity and quality. Many of these effects are similar to those encountered in other types of mining, although there are some unique risks posed by uranium mining and processing due to the presence of radioactive substances, and co-occurring chemicals such as heavy metals.

Historical Uranium Project Data

The Rum Jungle uranium and copper mining project in Northern Territory, Australia, operated from 1954 to 1971, is an example of a mining operation that occurred with virtually no concern for environmental impacts. During early years of operation, mine tailings at this site were discharged onto a flat, low-lying area adjacent to the processing facility; about 0.26 million gallons per day (1 million L/day) of liquid tailings wastes were discharged to a nearby river, and the solid tailings proved highly erodible during wet-season rain events.

A rehabilitation program from 1982 to 1986 aimed at reducing metal loads to surface waters included backfilling open cuts with tailing wastes, recontouring waste rock dumps, constructing engineered soil covers to limit infiltration and AMD production, and rehabilitating the former processing facility and ore stockpile areas. More than two decades following closure, a field campaign in the 1992-1993 wet season showed that concentrations of arsenic, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, uranium, and zinc still greatly exceeded water quality standards at a river monitoring station located 3.5 mi (5.6 km) downstream of the site.

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NPR: Nuclear power push ramps up uranium mill — and tribal health concerns

On a hot April day, Malcolm Lehi maneuvered his Jeep Wrangler over a rough dirt road. He drove past junipers and sagebrush in search of Entrance Spring on land long connected to his tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute.

The cool, mossy spring lies just across the highway from White Mesa Mill, the nation’s only remaining conventional uranium mill, which produces yellowcake for nuclear power fuel.

For decades, the mill has sparked debate over whether radioactive contamination threatens human health by getting into the water and the air. Concerns run especially deep in the White Mesa Ute Community, where Lehi and about 200 members of his tribe live some 5 miles south of the facility.

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National Laboratory of Medicine/National Center for Biotechnology Information: Potential Human Health Effects of Uranium Mining, Processing, and Reclamation

These health risks typically are most relevant to individuals occupationally exposed in this industry but certain exposures and their associated risks can extend via environmental pathways to the general population.

Internal exposure to radioactive materials during uranium mining and processing can take place through inhalation, ingestion, or through a cut in the skin. External radiation exposure can also present a health risk.

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CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: ToxFAQS

• Exposure to high levels of natural or depleted uranium can cause kidney disease.
• Natural and depleted uranium that exist in the dust in the air settle onto water, land, and plants. Uranium deposited on land can be reincorporated into soil, washed into surface water, or stick to plant roots. Uranium in air, surface water, or groundwater can be transported large distances.
• People may be exposed to higher levels of uranium if they live near uranium mining, processing, and manufacturing facilities. People may also be exposed if they live near areas where depleted uranium weapons are used.
• Most of the uranium you breathe or ingest is not absorbed and leaves the body in the feces. Absorbed uranium is deposited throughout the body. The highest levels are found in the bones, liver, and kidneys; 66% of the uranium in the body is found in your bones. It can remain in the bones for a long time; the half-life of uranium in bones is 70-200 days. Most of the uranium that is not in bones leaves the body in the urine in 1-2 weeks.
• Natural uranium and depleted uranium have the identical chemical effect on your body. Kidney damage has been seen in humans and animals after inhaling or ingesting uranium compounds.
• Studies in animals have shown that inhalation exposure to insoluble uranium compounds can result in lung damage.
• Exposure of animals to high levels of uranium during pregnancy, which caused toxicity in the mothers, has induced early deaths and birth defects in the young. There are some studies that suggest that exposure to depleted uranium increased the frequency of birth defects, but the studies are deficient to allow valid conclusions.

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Native American Budget and Policy Institute

To date, research has identified connections between exposure to uranium mining operations and many kinds of cancers, especially lung cancer. A USPHS study from 1991 to 2005 found that 25% of the deaths in 4,137 former uranium miners were attributed to lung cancer, with Native American miners experiencing three times the expected rate.(10)

Uranium mining has also been linked to pulmonary fibrosis, hypertension, birth defects, cardiovascular diseases, silicosis, emphysema, kidney failure, Down syndrome, miscarriage, learning disabilities.

Further research has also increasingly shown connections to inflammatory diseases, such as diabetes, an illness with a high prevalence in Native American communities but whose association with extractive industry is rarely highlighted. (article footnotes 15, 19, 20, 17)

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Anti-uranium advocates wrest control of public hearing on proposed mine near Navajo Nation

August 10, 202, Source NM

GALLUP — A recent hearing meant to inform the public about a new uranium mine proposal near Church Rock instead exposed wounds around the legacy of mining’s impacts on Navajo communities, as well as fresh concerns about whether technology that promises to safely extract the mineral is as clean as the industry claims.

Laramide Resources, a Canadian mining company, and its subsidiary NuFuels, Inc., held a public hearing Thursday at a casino near Gallup as it seeks a permit from the New Mexico Environment Department to discharge.

But Navajo anti-mining advocates, as well as those who still remember the cascading consequences  from the 1979 Church Rock mine spill, shouted out repeatedly during the company’s presentation. They expressed frustration that NuFuels would pursue a uranium mine in an area still contending with the biggest uranium spill in the nation’s history, as well as numerous other public health and environmental harms from decades of uranium mining.

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Uranium mine effects upon New Mexico Tribal Communities

The Church Rock, New Mexico Uranium Mill Spill

In 1968, the United Nuclear Corporation initiated mining operations in the largest
underground uranium mine in the United States. Located in Church Rock, New Mexico, in the Navajo Native American Reservation, the Church Rock Mill produced more than two million pounds of uranium oxide per year. Waste from the mining process was disposed of in three lined lagoons fortified by a man-made dam built on geologically unsound land—of which both the United Nuclear Corporation and state and federal agencies were aware. On July 16th 1979, the dam breached and 1100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water seeped into the Puerco River. Scientists estimate that the amount of radiation released in the Church Rock uranium mill spill was larger than the amount released at Three Mile Island, just four months prior. Surrounding residents of the mill, almost entirely Navajos, relied on the Puerco River as a watering source for livestock. They have since suffered severe health problems due to substantial increases in radioactivity found in the water, soil, and air. Despite several selective investigations and cleanup efforts by the US Environmental Protection Agency, ramifications of the spill remain evident in the Navajo Nation today.

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Wikipedia link for a deep dive into the Church Rock Uranium spill of 1979. (has a good map)

The Homestake Mining Uranium open-pit project devastating communities near Grants and Milan

High Country News- The “death map” tells the story of decades of sickness in the small northwest New Mexico communities of Murray Acres and Broadview Acres.

… residents believe is the cause of their sickness: 22.2 million tons of uranium waste left over from milling ore to supply power plants and nuclear bombs.

Beginning in 1958, a uranium mill owned by Homestake Mining Company of California processed and refined ore mined nearby. The waste it left behind leaked uranium and selenium into groundwater and released the cancer-causing gas radon into the air. State and federal regulators knew the mill was polluting groundwater almost immediately after it started operating, but years passed before they informed residents and demanded fixes.

Property records reveal the company had, by the end of 2021, purchased 574 parcels covering 14,425 acres around the mill site. This April, Homestake staff indicated they had 123 properties left to buy. One resident said the area was quickly becoming a “ghost town.”

Even after the community is gone, more than 15,000 people who live nearby, many of them Indigenous, will continue to rely on water threatened by Homestake’s pollution.

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Another article regarding the Homestake Mining Uranium project

Searchlight New Mexico – “Over time, the uranium tailings decayed into radon gas; meanwhile, radioactive contaminants seeped into four of the region’s aquifers.
Residents compiled a list of neighbors who died of cancer — they called it the Death Map. In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicted that the probability of developing cancer was notably higher for residents who lived closest to the mill, especially if they drank the water.”

“In the intervening decades, Homestake attempted to hold its remaining contamination at bay rather than offer a long-term solution. That changed in 2020, when the company declared that a full cleanup of the groundwater was not feasible and instead embarked on a mass buyout and demolition of homes inside the rural subdivisions and beyond.

Homestake’s goal, ultimately, is to hand over 6,100 acres of land — almost twice the size of nearby Milan — to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of a special federal program that takes over shuttered nuclear outfits when industry walks away. The deadline is 2035. And if this site is anything like the majority of the DOE’s other sites, the land will be rendered inaccessible to the public, with the company’s guarantee that toxins will stay inside the massive contamination zone boundary for a thousand years.”

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Union of Concerned Scientists – U.S. Uranium Mining Legacy Still Harms Navajo Nation

May 6th, 2025. Nuclear colonialism refers to the systematic exploitation of Indigenous lands and the Diné (what the Navajo people call themselves) by the US nuclear weapons program for the purposes of nuclear testing, uranium mining, waste disposal, and dosing humans with radiation without their consent.

The Navajo Nation has historically been disproportionately burdened by the US nuclear weapons program, especially uranium mining. During more than four decades of domestic uranium production, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore were mined on the Navajo Nation. Although the US government knew the risks of radiation to humans, many Navajo miners were still sent into mines with poor ventilation and safety regulations skirted.

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Environmental Law Institute – An Ongoing Battle: Fighting the Impacts of Uranium Mining in Southwestern Indigenous Communities

June 24, 2020. Indigenous communities in the Southwestern United States have been battling the impacts of uranium mining since the early 1940s. The geology of the Colorado Plateau was found to be rich in the radioactive mineral and drew mining to the area. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sought uranium to develop nuclear weapons during the Cold War, which fueled the interest of mining companies that opened uranium mines and mills on and around indigenous land. This was the start of an environmental justice issue spanning generations and continuing to impact indigenous communities today.

Indigenous communities were not told about the health risks uranium and radiation posed even though scientists and government officials knew of its hazards at the time.

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Key points to cut and paste into an opposition email:

1. Demand full Environmental Impact Statements – analysis to be conducted with proper scientific methodology to PROVE how allowing a uranium development project would NOT harm the health of our communities, water and land.
2. Demand all county officials, tribal communities, acequia associations, agricultural and ranching groups – ALL Communities and Northern New Mexico citizens potentially affected – be granted vigorous input.