Latest news with #ThelmaWhiskers
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who is driving Utah's energy future?
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) Our state leaders are calling for Utah to become the 'nation's nuclear hub.' Gov. Spencer Cox has claimed that his Operation Gigawatt 'puts Utah in a position to lead the country in energy development, secure our energy future, and remain a net energy exporter while diversifying and expanding our energy resources.' Deciding what energy technologies to pursue in a state involves weighing risks and benefits and determining what risks a community is willing to accept. This year, Utah's legislature passed HB249, which will create a nuclear energy consortium to guide the state's plans for nuclear energy. However, in the process of passing this bill, we have yet to see a robust discussion of the risks of nuclear energy or meaningful engagement of communities that this development will most impact. While new technology may present new opportunities, we must consider the critical risks of investing so much in nuclear energy. The dangers of nuclear power before and after its operation go beyond the risk of a meltdown and could have devastating consequences for our state. The uranium boom in the '50s and '60s had devastating impacts on Utah's people and lands, as well as for uranium miners in Navajo Nation. The largest nuclear accident in the U.S. happened in 1979 at the United Nuclear Corporation's Church Rock uranium mill site in New Mexico. A dam broke and released radiation into the Rio Puerco, contaminating drinking water, aquifers, and soil on Diné (Navajo) lands. Uranium mining and milling are not just a part of Utah's past. Today, the country's last remaining conventional uranium mill is near Blanding, Utah. The mill is owned by Energy Fuels, a company that specializes in uranium and rare earth mineral mining and milling. Recently, the mill accepted uranium from the newly reopened La Sal mine complex in Utah and the Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon. Indigenous communities around the region, including the Havasupai Nation, Diné communities, and Ute Mountain Ute Nation, have spoken out on how the nuclear fuel chain disproportionately impacts their communities and lands. Milling, often overlooked, is a critical part of nuclear energy production. Like the history of nuclearism in this state, this mill disproportionately impacts Indigenous communities, in this case, the local White Mesa Ute community. Community members from White Mesa have fought for years against the mill's contamination of their air and water and desecration of sacred lands. White Mesa Concerned Community, a grassroots group, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe held a rally this fall at the state capitol. Yolanda Badback, leader of White Mesa Concerned Community, called on the state to regulate and shut down the mill. She stated, 'I want my community to have good air quality and good water resources. We live there, and that's our homeland. And I will never leave my homeland for anything.' State leaders have failed to listen to and represent the members of their state most impacted by the nuclear industry today. Just this fall, state legislators took a field trip down to the mill to see it for themselves. This visit allowed Energy Fuels direct access to the eyes and ears of state legislators. That same privilege was not offered to those just 5 miles down the road in White Mesa who are most impacted by its operation. Hearing from impacted communities adds a needed layer to discussions about the safety of nuclear energy, including its entire lifecycle. Nuclear power's lifecycle begins with uranium mining and ends with nuclear waste storage. State leaders claim that nuclear energy is clean and safe. For example, at the committee hearing for HB249, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Carl Albrecht, insisted that new nuclear technology was safe and highly regulated. Yet, the state of Utah recently joined a lawsuit to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reduce regulations on small-modular nuclear reactors. These regulations are necessary to protect our state, public health, and future generations. Will the state also seek to reduce regulations on uranium mining and milling, transport, and waste storage? Decisions we make about our energy future must be informed by the real lived experiences of members of our community, especially those who bear the brunt of its impacts. As state leaders seek to grow nuclear power in the state, we, as Utahns, must demand that our legislators not only listen to those most impacted but also evaluate the risks of nuclear energy, especially those within the entire lifecycle.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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.
