Coalition of Organizations Stand in Unity with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to Oppose Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Uranium Mill Operations

White Mesa, Utah — A broad coalition of organizations has signed a letter of unity standing in firm solidarity with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the White Mesa Ute Community, the White Mesa Concerned Community group, and all impacted communities in rejecting the continued operation of Energy Fuels Inc.’s uranium mill near White Mesa, Utah.

The White Mesa Mill, located just south of Blanding and immediately adjacent to the Ute Mountain Ute White Mesa Community, poses an ongoing and significant threat to indigenous health, sacred lands, water, cultural heritage, and public health. The signatories denounce the processing and dumping of radioactive waste, including alternate feed materials, at the site, practices that have long disproportionately impacted Native communities and perpetuated environmental injustice.

“White Mesa is not a dumping ground for the nuclear industry,” the letter states. “We reject the reatment of Indigenous lands and communities as sacrifice zones and call for an end to the harmful legacy of uranium contamination.”

The signers extend their solidarity beyond White Mesa to communities harmed at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining to waste disposal. This includes strong opposition to the Pinyon Plain uranium mine near the Grand Canyon, the transport of radioactive materials across the world and through tribal lands, and the failure to clean up abandoned uranium mines across the Navajo Nation and other tribal territories. Read more below.