The work is unfolding as global instability and growing demand drive uranium prices higher

The largest uranium producer in the United States is ramping up work just south of Grand Canyon National Park on a long-contested project that largely has sat dormant since the 1980s.

The work is unfolding as global instability and growing demand drive uranium prices higher.

The Biden administration and dozens of other countries have pledged to triple the capacity of nuclear power worldwide in their battle against climate change, ensuring uranium will remain a key commodity for decades as the government offers incentives for developing the next generation of nuclear reactors and new policies take aim at Russia’s influence over the supply chain.

But as the U.S. pursues its nuclear power potential, environmentalists and Native American leaders remain fearful of the consequences for communities near mining and milling sites in the West and are demanding better regulatory oversight.

Producers say uranium production today is different than decades ago when the country was racing to build up its nuclear arsenal. Those efforts during World War II and the Cold War left a legacy of death, disease and contamination on the Navajo Nation and in other communities across the country, making any new development of the ore a hard pill to swallow for many.

read more: https://ictnews.org/news/uranium-is-being-mined-near-the-grand-canyon-as-prices-soar

  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    It’s not like there’s an “indigenous-people-friendly” form of extraction. In Bolivia there has even been contention between indigenous groups and the indigenous-led (I think?) government over proposed resource extraction projects.

    • combat_brandonism [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      9 months ago

      It’s not like there’s an “indigenous-people-friendly” form of extraction.

      Eh this feels strongly like an ‘easier to imagine the end of the world’ take, there are better and worse forms of and places for extraction. And I’m sure that contention in Bolivia is preferable to the brutal conditions people faced under the short-lived western-backed christofash regime a few years back.

      That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Another example is succdem AMLO doing an extractive colonial rail infra project in Chiapas. Hopefully through pushback those slightly less shitty guvmints will do better, and if not be replaced by one that does.