05-02-2025
My family suffered from exposure to radioactive toxins. Now, leaders want nuclear energy in Utah.
Thelma Whiskers of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe speaks in opposition of the White Mesa Uranium Mill during a protest outside the Utah Capitol Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)
The Utah State Legislature's House Public Utilities and Energy Committee marked this year's National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders — a day that honors the victims of radiation from nuclear test sites — by unanimously supporting a bill to fast-track nuclear development. The move aligns with the Gov. Spencer Cox's energy plan, or 'operation gigawatt,' which Cox described as an opportunity for Utah to 'lead the country in energy development, secure our energy future and remain a net energy exporter while diversifying and expanding our energy resources.'
Despite the governor's claims that nuclear energy is 'clean and reliable,' it is carbon intensive to construct and costly to operate. But more importantly, it's unsafe. State legislators have acknowledged the risk of nuclear disasters, but the dangers of nuclear energy production start earlier in the supply chain.
My mom was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town built for uranium research and nuclear study in World War II. My grandfather was an avid deer hunter in his younger days, but in their community it is recommended that they get the meat hunted near the labs tested for radiation exposure before consuming it. When my mom worked at the labs there, she looked out her window to see the river below her office glowing, something her boss told her she shouldn't worry about it. But cancer and genetic disorders are high in the community. My grandmother is currently living with the same rare form of cancer that killed two of her three brothers. My aunt, my mom's only sibling, was born with a serious genetic condition that significantly impacted her quality of life and contributed to her passing in her late thirties. These are the public health costs of nuclear energy. Uranium must be mined and processed and to do that communities and families are sacrificed.
Radioactive toxins are already harming communities in our state. One such community is White Mesa, Utah, where roughly 200 members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe live. In October, I had the honor of visiting White Mesa to join the annual spiritual walk from their community center to the Energy Fuels White Mesa Mill just a few miles down the road, where radioactive waste from around the world is stored and uranium is processed. There, we learned about the health impacts from this facility and how accidents near their homes have been hastily and improperly cleaned up. Tribal members told us how they abandoned traditional hunting and gathering practices out of fear of contamination and that the construction of the mill destroyed sites that are sacred to them, including burial grounds.
What is happening in White Mesa is not unusual. The history of uranium in this country is a story of exploitation of Indigenous peoples. The vast majority of uranium in the country has been mined on Navajo Nation where economic conditions, caused by centuries of colonial exploitation, forced people to work in dangerous conditions without proper information about the risks. Members of the Navajo Nation experience many health effects to this day including high rates of cancer, due to waste and mines that are still on their lands.
Downwinders have never been fully compensated from the impacts of nuclear testing. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) recently expired, the little compensation downwinders had been receiving has dried up leaving many Utahns struggling with expensive medical bills.
Utah should explore forms of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and geothermal before pursuing nuclear energy. With proper battery storage, technology concerns about intermittent power can be rectified. Despite Utah's supposed 'all of the above' energy approach, the legislature is attempting to restrict solar energy development and disqualify wind and solar facilities from serving as large-scale generation providers.
It is long since time that we ensure that uranium mines are cleaned up and that waste and toxins are moved out of the White Mesa Mill and away from the Ute Mountain Ute tribe. It is not the time to bring nuclear energy into the state. Instead we must seek justice for those who have been harmed by the uranium and nuclear industries.
