Navajo Nation plans to test limit of tribal law preventing transportation of uranium on its land

Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The Navajo Nation plans to test the limits of a tribal law that banned the transportation of uranium ore on its lands. Tribal President Buu Nygren on Tuesday ordered Navajo police to set up roadblocks on federal highways and turn back any trucks carrying uranium. But before tribal police could do that, the semi-trucks no longer were on the reservation. The tribe’s law prohibiting uranium ore transport exempts highways that Energy Fuels Inc. designated as hauling routes between the Pinyon Plain Mine outside Grand Canyon National Park and a processing site in Blanding, Utah. Still, Nygren and the tribe’s attorney general believe the tribe’s plan is legally sound. An Energy Fuels spokesman didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday.