LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: NM is in the crosshairs of the nuclear industry
Support for nuclear energy as a false solution to climate change and the current wars has set the global stage for uranium prices to increase. In the U.S., nuclear weapons modernization and expansion, banning of Russian uranium and the so-called energy emergency 鈥� which triggered four nuclear executive orders, fast-tracking of projects, deregulations and the treatment of uranium as a critical resource 鈥� have galvanized the inflation of a nuclear bubble.
Consequently, amidst hundreds of legacy uranium sites, four uranium projects now threaten northwest New Mexico. La Jara Mesa, Roca Honda and Grants Precision ISR are new proposals along the western periphery of Mount Taylor鈥檚 Traditional Cultural Property; the Crownpoint-Churchrock Uranium Project, in McKinley County, was licensed but never started. Mount Taylor is considered sacred by Indigenous nations, yet the TCP does not prohibit extraction.
La Jara Mesa and Roca Honda are conventional underground mines requiring transport to a mill for processing. The only operating U.S.-licensed uranium mill is in Utah. Public hearings for La Jara Mesa are pending. Regarding Roca Honda, the public can send hearing requests until June 19 and comments until July 19.
The Crownpoint-Churchrock Uranium Project and Grants Precision ISR are planned in situ leach mines, which use injection wells to pump a chemical solution directly into the aquifer to mobilize the uranium; production wells to pump out the uranium-laden sludge; and a processing facility. ISL mining permanently contaminates the mined aquifer. The Crownpoint-Churchrock Uranium Project consists of three extraction sites and a central processing plant in Crownpoint. Grants Precision ISR would mine and process at the same site. The public can request hearings or petition to intervene on the Crownpoint-Churchrock ISL license renewal until July 27.
In April, at the Nuclear in New Mexico: Fueling the U.S. Nuclear Renaissance conference, proponents touted ISL methods as 鈥渆co-friendly鈥� and celebrated New Mexico as an untapped resource for all things nuclear. A similar conference in May, hosted by Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty, highlighted benefits of resource exploitation and energy development, including topics such as high pressure slurry ablation, powering artificial intelligence data centers, and fossil fuels and critical minerals production.
As the nuclear industry makes plans for New Mexico鈥檚 future, waste from past uranium and nuclear weapons production remains unaddressed by the federal government. Los Alamos National Laboratory has an estimated 500,000 cubic meters of legacy waste inside 2,000 containers under fabric tents, septic tanks and unlined landfills 鈥� all within a wildfire zone 鈥� that should鈥檝e already gone to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Appropriately, the New Mexico Environment Department issued a draft permit modification for the WIPP prioritizing emplacement of LANL legacy waste before waste from other facilities and new plutonium pit production. The public can comment on this permit modification until June 22.
In April, the National Nuclear Security Administration issued a draft programmatic environmental impact statement for nationwide plutonium pit production at several national facilities including LANL. Plutonium pits are the trigger for nuclear weapons, and production has a fraught history. New pits would be for new weapons, deemed unnecessary by opponents. The public can comment on the draft until July 16.
On a positive note, uranium exploration near Canjilon, in the Carson National Forest and Chama watershed, has spurred strong opposition from locals, two county commissions and New Mexico鈥檚 congressional delegation, who are calling to suspend permitting until legislation to withdraw the Chama watershed from all mineral development is considered.
The false premise that nuclear energy is somehow safe and clean and propaganda that nuclear weapons create peace are driving the demand for uranium and a nuclear economy in New Mexico. We have the lived experience of health and environmental destruction from nuclear; and we cannot allow history to repeat itself.
Leona Morgan (Din茅) is a community organizer and longtime anti-nuclear activist.
