uranium news

The groups contend the mines, first permitted by NRC in 1999, could contaminate drinking water for 15,000 Navajo residents in and around the two communities, which lie just outside the Navajo Nation. In 2005, the Navajo’s tribal government passed a law prohibiting uranium mining within its borders….The United Nations also recognizes clean water as a human right

Navajo Group to Take Uranium Mine Challenge to Human Rights Commission, NYTimes.com, By APRIL REESE of GreenwirePublished: May 12, 2011 In a last attempt to deep-six a controversial project to mine uranium near two Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico, a Navajo environmental group is taking its fight to the global stage. (more…)

mining firms “scoured the land” looking for ore deposits, Tohe said. They hired local workers, Navajos and Pueblos, to enter the mines, where radioactive dust settled into miners’ clothes before they went home and contaminated their families, Tohe said.

“The workers were never told that this was dangerous,” Tohe said……There may be short-term jobs, but the mining industry is susceptible to the market,”…“The communities are held hostage by the boom and bust cycle,”

Anti-uranium mining activist speaks out on project | GoDanRiver.com, 7 Feb 2011, If uranium is mined and milled at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County, what happened in the U.S. West could happen in Chatham, (more…)

In a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, this week, Ms Margarula said it was “with great sadness” the Mirarr people learnt of the suffering of the Japanese people following the earthquake and tsunami.

Ms Margarula told Mr Ban her people had been blocked from opposing the export of uranium from their land to Japan…..

Jeffery Lee, the sole member of the Djok clan, offered Koongarra to the government, shunning the chance to become a billionaire, saying he is happy to work as a ranger protecting the land….

Forget the billions, return Jabiluka site to Kakadu, say traditional owners, Sydney Morning Herald, Lindsay Murdoch Jabiru April 7, 2011 ABORIGINAL traditional owners have declared they want the multibillion-dollar Jabiluka uranium deposit to remain undeveloped and be incorporated into Kakadu National Park. (more…)

We don’t need uranium mining in this country,” says Wongatha leader and pastor Geoffrey Stokes. “We have sun, we’ve got wind, we’ve got people. Why should we pollute our country for money?”.

Australia’s aboriginal communities clamour against uranium mining‘ We don’t want to bequeath a legacy for future generations of a toxic environment’ say aboriginal clans in opposition to major uranium mining site opening in western Australia  Jessie Boylan,   guardian.co.uk,   9 August 2010.

As a mining giant prepares to open a major uranium mining site in Western Australia next year, the clamour for the state to once more ban mining of the radioactive mineral has become louder. (more…)