Nuclear Environmental Justice Issues
by Stephanie Bilenko, NEIS Board
June 22, 2025
What Could go Wrong?
On July 10, 2024 President Biden signed the “ADVANCE Act,” which stands for “Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy.” The controversial bill aggressively promotes the narrow, short-term interests of the U.S. nuclear industry in ways that threaten the long-term national environmental, climate and national/international security interests. Congress also swallowed the koolaid. The House and Senate passed versions of the bill. The Act functionally rewrites the mandate of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in ways that potentially cast it into the role of promoter instead of federal regulator of the controversial and moribund nuclear power industry.
“With the pressing need for more American energy to meet the challenges of AI and secure our nation’s energy dominance, President Trump’s executive orders will unshackle our civil nuclear potential and usher in an American nuclear energy renaissance.” One of the big takeaways from the executive orders is that President Trump wants to maximize domestic production of nuclear fuel. Building out the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign sources of uranium and enable long-term expansion of American nuclear energy. That means a focus on increased mining, enrichment, conversion and deconversion capabilities — and even recycling and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel — with assistance from DOE-supported nuclear industry consortia. Of note: DOE will release at least 20 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) into a fuel bank for private sector projects powering AI infrastructure at DOE sites.
The Nuclear Revival is happening and needs more uranium transported thru tribal lands. The Southwest is once again a sacrifice zone.
Leona Morgan, Dine’ co-founder of Haul No!, said the Navajo Nation government is now “back peddling” by allowing radioactive uranium waste to be transported through Dine’ communities. This radioactive transport from the Grand Canyon means even more deadly waste for another Native community — the White Mesa Ute community in Utah.
Leona warned of the risks. On Feb. 12, Energy Transfer planned to begin hauling radioactive uranium ore through Navajo communities — Cameron, Tuba City, Kayenta and Mexican Water on the Navajo Nation in Arizona with six to ten trucks a day passing by Dine’ homes. With little or no information along the haul route, the Navajo government expected the Dine’ Chapters along the route to each have an emergency preparedness plan. She asked if the Dine’ communities were aware of this and whether the Navajo Chapters are certified to deal with radioactive emergencies. “Who are their First Responders?” “The people in the communities were not consulted.”
“How can they start transporting on February 12th, when there aren’t even any checkpoints? We don’t even have an air monitoring system,” Leona said of the lack of preparation for radioactive transport and radioactive emergencies on the Navajo Nation. “It’s going to get worse because they think nuclear is clean energy,” Leona said of the push for so-called “alternative energy.” The deadly transport from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine on Havasupai ancestral land in the Grand Canyon is already endangering Havasupais’ aquifer and water supply and spewing radioactive dust on their medicine plants. The haul route and the threat of radioactive spills puts at risk Havasupai, Paiute, Hualapai, Dine’, Hopi and Ute, all living on their ancestral lands in what is known as the Grand Canyon and Four Corners region.
Read more at Censored News:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/02/tuba-city-community-forum-and-walk-shut.html
Media has lost its independence. The atomic industry is sustained by a massive public relations machine which uses semantic tricks, including misusing words, to confuse radiation victims as to the cause of their illnesses. For eight decades, they have repeatedly discounted and denied accurate medical diagnoses for both civilians and military personnel. In cases of low-level radiation, like that surrounding nuclear power plants, the latent period for disease can be long, so industry and government intentionally obfuscate the fact that many illnesses originate with radiation. Long term dosimetry studies do not recognize low dose exposure. The people of Japan suffering from Fukushima melt down have an inalienable right to health and to life in a healthy environment. The examination of children’s thyroid glands benefits not only the patients themselves, whose cancers can be detected and treated at an early stage, but also the entire population, which is affected by irradiation from radioactive fallout. The correct continuation and scientific monitoring of thyroid examinations are therefore in the public interest and must not be thwarted by political or economic motives. Diagnosed with cancer in Japan can affect employment, mortgages, health insurance.
After the world’s first commercial nuclear reactor meltdown, the same powers neglect distributing potassium iodide pills for emergencies for fear it will clue people into the dangers of nuclear. Today, the dark truths of nuclear power are concealed by billionaires seeking their own profits without any concern for people and the planet. A coalition of large energy users like Amazon, Google, Dow and Meta pledged in March to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Financial institutions like Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also endorsed the commitment for nuclear expansion.
Last summer RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) was not brought to the floor of the House for a vote so downwinders lost over a year of monetary help with medical bills. GOOD NEWS – Senator Josh Hawley has reintroduced RECA, tacking onto the Big Bill. It’s being described as the largest expansion of RECA, adding people in parts of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska, among others, as well as the entire state of New Mexico and parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
The expanded RECA provision, which includes multiple bipartisan wins, would
- Add eligibility for RECA compensation for residents of affected areas in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alaska who were exposed to contamination and developed cancers
- Fully cover existing RECA-eligible “downwind” areas and on-site participants, such as military personnel. These areas currently include regions of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona
- Fully cover all existing RECA uranium mine workers
- Add new “downwind” areas for claimants: the state of New Mexico, remaining counties in Utah, plus Mohave County in Arizona. –
- Increase benefit levels for atmospheric testing survivors to track inflation –
- Add new uranium mine workers who worked in mines from 1971-1990, add core drillers as an eligible worker, and expand eligible diseases.
Nuclear Power and Weapons are joined at the hip. Aug.6, 80th anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing.
Balance graphic courtesy of Flaticon
