Showing posts with label uranium mining. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uranium mining. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Uranium Mining Begins at Grand Canyon

Uranium Mining Begins at Grand Canyon
Thousands of Claims Threaten Public Health and Sacred Lands



By Klee Benally

Indigenous Action Media
(http://www.indigenousaction.org/)

Photo (R): Havasupai gathered near Red Butte at the south rim of the Grand Canyon in July to oppose Denison Mines new uranium mining. Photo Brenda Norrell.

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. -- In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009.

Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium per day out of the "Arizona 1 Mine", which is set to operate four days per week. The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company's White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah.
After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1 million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn't include existing claims such as Denison's. The moratorium also doesn't address mining claims outside of the buffer zone.

The Grand Canyon is ancestral homeland to the Havasupai and Hualapai Nations. Although both Indigenous Nations have banned uranium mining on their reservations the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management may permit thousands of mining claims on surrounding lands.

Due to recent increases in the price of uranium and the push for nuclear power nearly 8,000 new mining claims now threaten Northern Arizona. Uranium mined from the Southwestern U.S. is predominately purchased by countries such as France (Areva) & Korea for nuclear energy.

In July of 2009 members of the Havasupai Nation and their allies gathered for four days on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at their sacred site Red Butte to address the renewed threat. Red Butte has long been endangered by the on-going threat of uranium mining.

Under an anachronistic 1872 mining law, created when pick axes and shovels were used, mining companies freely file claims on public lands. The law permits mining regardless of cultural impacts.

OBAMA APPROVES NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS AND INCREASED NEED FOR URANIUM

Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.'s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005.
Since 2007, seventeen companies have now sought government approval for 26 more reactors with plans to complete four by 2018 and up to eight by 2020. New reactors are estimated to cost more than $12 billion each.
Although nuclear energy is hailed by some as a solution to the current U.S. energy crisis and global warming, those more closely impacted by uranium mining and transportation recognize the severity of the threat.

THE COLORADO RIVER, WATER & URANIUM'S DEADLY LEGACY

Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects.
Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources.

Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.
The river that carves the Grand Canyon has been extensively used by the agricultural industry and cities that are dependent for drinking water, so much so that it now ceases to flow to the Gulf of California, forcing members of the Cocopah Nation (The People of the River) in Northern Mexico to abandon their homelands and relocate elsewhere.
Today there are more than 2,000 abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest. U.S. government agencies have done little or nothing to clean up contaminated sites and abandoned mines. At Rare Metals near Tuba City on the Diné (Navajo) Nation a layer of soil and rock is the only covering over 2.3 million tons of hazardous waste. A rock dam surrounds the radioactive waste to control runoff water that flows into nearby Moenkopi Wash. Throughout the Diné Nation, Diné families have been subject to decades of radioactive contamination ranging from unsafe mining conditions to living in houses built from uranium tailings. Well water is documented by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as undrinkable in at least 22 communities such as Black Falls on the Dine’ Nation. According to the EPA, "Approximately 30 percent of the Navajo population does not have access to a public drinking water system and may be using unregulated water sources with uranium contamination." Flocks of sheep and other livestock still graze among radioactive tailing piles and ingest radioactive water.

According to the Navajo Nation up to 2.5 million gallons of uranium contaminated water is leaching out of the Shiprock Uranium Mill near Shiprock, New Mexico into the San Juan River every year. At the Church Rock Mine in New Mexico, which is now attempting to re-open, up to 875,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste continue to contaminate the land.
In July 1979 a dirt dam breached on the Navajo Nation at a uranium processing plant releasing more than 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and nearly 100 million gallons of contaminated fluid into the Rio Puerco (which ultimately flows into the Colorado River) near Church Rock, NM. This was the single largest nuclear accident in US history. Thousands of Diné families that live in the region, including those forced to relocate from the Joint Use Area due to coal mining, continue to suffer health impacts resulting from the spill.

In 2005 the Diné Nation government banned uranium mining and processing within its borders due to uranium's harmful legacy of severe health impacts and poisoning of the environment. And yet, high cancer rates, birth defects and other health impacts still bear out the uranium industry's dangerous legacy.

NUCLEAR WASTE & INDIGENOUS SACRED LANDS

Today the US has nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear waste stored in concrete dams at nuclear power plants throughout the country. The waste increases at a rate of 2,000 tons per year. Depleted Uranium (DU) is a byproduct of uranium enrichment and reprocessing which has controversial military uses including armor piercing projectiles. DU has been found to cause long-term health effects ranging from harming organs to causing miscarriages and birth defects.
In 1987 Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the U.S.'s toxic waste at Yucca Mountain located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Yucca Mountain has been held holy to the Paiute and Western Shoshone Nations since time immemorial.

In February 2009 Obama met a campaign promise to cut funding for the multibillion dollar Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The controversial project was initially proposed in 1987 with radioactive waste to be shipped from all over the U.S. via rails and highways. Currently a new proposal for an experimental method of extracting additional fuel from nuclear waste called "reprocessing" renews the threat to desecrate the sacred mountain on Western Shoshone lands.

Western Shoshone lands, which have never been ceeded to the U.S. government, have long been under attack by the military and nuclear industry. Between 1951 and 1992 more than 1,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated above and below the surface at an area called the Nevada Test Site on Western Shoshone lands which make it one of the most bombed nations on earth. Communities in areas around the test site faced exposure to radioactive fallout which has caused cancers, leukemia & other illnesses. Western Shoshone spiritual practitioner Corbin Harney, who has since passed on, helped initiate a grassroots effort to shutdown the test site and abolish nuclear weapons.

Indigenous Peoples in the Marshall Islands have also faced serious impacts due to U.S. nuclear testing. In her book, Conquest: Sexual Violence & American Indian Genocide, Andrea Smith reports that some Indigenous Peoples in the islands have all together stopped reproducing due to the severity of cancer and birth defects they have faced.

CONTINUING RESISTANCE

In March 1988 more than 8,000 people converged for massive 10 day direct action to "reclaim" the test site, nearly 3,000 people were arrested. Groups such as the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) and Shundahai Network continue their work to shut down the test site and resist the corporate and military nuclear industry.

Throughout the 1980's a fierce movement of grassroots resistance and direct action against uranium mining near the Grand Canyon had taken shape, galvanized by the Havasupai, Hopi, Diné (Navajo), Hualapai tribes and a Flagstaff group, Canyon Under Siege. Prayerful and strategic meetings were held once a year throughout the 80s. In 1989 a group known as the 'Arizona 5' were charged for eco-actions including cutting power-lines to the Canyon Uranium Mine. Attributable in some part to the resistance and but mainly to a sharp drop in the price of uranium, companies like Dennison were forced to shut their mines down.

Mt. Taylor, located on Forest Service managed lands in New Mexico between Albuquerque and Gallup, has also faced the threat of uranium mining. The mountain sits upon one of the richest reservers of uranium ore in the country, it is held holy by the Diné, Acoma, Laguna, Zuni & Hopi Nations. In June 2009 Indigenous Nations and environmental groups unified to protect the holy Mountain and through their efforts Mt. Taylor was given temporary protection as a Traditional Cultural Property.

For 7 years Indigenous People from throughout the world have gathered to organize against the nuclear industry at the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum on the Acoma Nation.

At the 2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit on the Diné Nation, community organizations such as Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) joined participants from Australia, India, Africa, Pacific Islands, and throughout North America in issuing a declaration demanding "a worldwide ban on uranium mining, processing, enrichment, fuel use, and weapons testing and deployment, and nuclear waste dumping on native lands."


Klee Benally (Diné) is a collective member of Indigenous Action Media, on the Board of Directors of the Shundahai Network, and is a musician with the group Blackfire.
Author Mary Sojourner assisted editing this article. For further information and action:

Southwest Research and Information Center
http://www.sric.org/

Shundahai Network
http://www.shundahai.org/


The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/


Uranium Watch
http://www.uraniumwatch.org/
World Information Service on Energy: Uranium Project
http://www.wise-uranium.org/

Western Mining Action Network
http://wman-info.org/

Network Sortir du Nucléaire
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/


Sources:
Addressing Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation - Map of contaminated wells
http://epa.gov/region09/superfund/navajo-nation/contaminated-water.html
Tuba City Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/tubacity_title1.html#_ftn51
EPA summit addresses uranium cleanup
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/08august/081408epa.html
Conservation groups challenge uranium mining threat to Colorado River
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/30/conservation-groups-challenge-uranium-mining-threa

A peril that dwelt among the Navajos - L.A. TImes - November 19, 2006
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/19/nation/na-navajo19
Uranium Mining & Milling
http://www.wise-uranium.org/indexu.html#UMMCI
Colorado River Facts
http://www.azhumanities.org/movingwaters/faq.html
Nuclear power inches back into energy spotlight
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-03-29-nuclear-power-energy-return_N.htm
AREVA: France’s nuke power poster child has a money melt-down
http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=506&lang=en
Environmental Working Group - January 2008 - Report: Grand Canyon Threatened by Approval of Uranium Mining Activities
http://www.ewg.org/reports/grandcanyon
Shiprock Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html
Grand Canyon Trust
http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/
The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
Southwest Research and Information Center
http://www.sric.org/

Nuclear Free Future
http://www.nuclear-free.com/

Klee Benally
indigenousaction@gmail.com
http://www.indigenousaction.org/ - Independent Indigenous Media
http://www.oybm.org/ - Indigenous Youth Empowerment!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/ - Protect Sacred Places
http://www.taalahooghan.org/ - Flagstaff Infoshop
http://www.blackfire.net/



CENSORED NEWS: This uranium mining, transport and processing threatens the water supply and health of Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai, Navajo and Ute in this immediate region, as well as visitors, other residents and those living along the Colorado River.
GRAND CANYON TRUST: "Denison Mines, a Canadian company, recently revived operations at the Arizona 1 uranium mine on the Arizona Strip adjacent to Grand Canyon. This industrial activity threatens not only the visitor experience at Grand Canyon National Park, but the water supply for twenty-five million people in Nevada, southern California, and Arizona, as well as seeps and springs in the park. Worse yet is the fact that much of the uranium will be shipped to Korea."

Uranium Mining in Region Resumes

By CYNDY COLE

Arizona Daily Sun

Driven by a rebound in prices, uranium mining has resumed in northern Arizona after a hiatus of about 20 years.
Employees working for Denison Mines began removing high-grade ore at the Arizona 1 mine north of the Grand Canyon in late December, according to the company’s president, and trucking it to a mill near Blanding, Utah.
The mine is about 45 miles southwest of Fredonia in Mohave County, and about 10 miles from the boundary for Grand Canyon National Park. Read more ...



TELL DENISON TO STOP:

Denison Mines is mining uranium on the lands of the Havasupai, Hualapai and Paiute at the Grand Canyon; Ute and Navajo in Utah and First Nations in Saskatchewan. TELL THEM TO HALT: Denison Mines Corp. Atrium on Bay 595 Bay Street, Suite 402 Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C2 Telephone: 416-979-1991 Fax: 416-979-5893 info@denisonmines.com

Monday, September 14, 2009

Top downloads at Censored Radio

Top Downloads at Censored News Radio
Photo: Ben Carnes fasting for Leonard Peltier. Photo copyright Kitty Carnes, published with permission.

Subcomandante Marcos at Digna Rabia (Spanish)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/01/04/Digna-Rabia-palabras-Subcomandnate-Marcos
Ben Carnes: Fasting at the White House for Leonard Peltier, Carnes with Wanbli, music by Keith Secola:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell
Ian Zabarte, Western Shoshone: Obama bluffs on Yucca Dump:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/05/01/Obamas-bluff-on-Yucca-MTN
Dennis Banks, AIM cofounder, speaking at the Havasupai Gathering to Halt Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell
Tohono O'odham Prisoner Abuse: Angie Ramon describes how Native American inmates were locked in a suffocating transport van in life threatening temperatures by Tohono O'odham detention officers. Angie Ramon discusses Ninth Circuit. Her son, 18 year old Bennett Patricio, Jr., was ran over and killed by the US Border Patrol on Tohono O'odham land. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/07/02/Uncensored-Voices
Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone, and Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo, Indigenous land rights and uranium mining:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/03/11/Carrie-Dann-and-Manny-Pino
Shannon Rivers, Akimel O'otham, on Indigenous Rights. Long Walkers talk in tornado hit Greensburg, Kansas. This is the Best of the Longest Walk, recorded by Earthcycles.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/01/13/Shannon-Rivers-Indigenous-Rights
Olympics 2012: The Native Youth Movement Warrior Society plans a convergence, protest and boycott of the 2010 Olympics, sending this message: 'Native land is not for sale!' Blackfire's NAMMY Record of the Year: 'Silence is a Weapon.' Also, Charlie Hill and Keith Secola at AIM West Reunion.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/01/21/Native-American-Youth-Movement-No-2010-Olympics
AIM WEST Carpinteria and El Salvador: Mark Anquoe, Kiowa, of AIM, speaks on the election in El Salvador and racist mascots in Carpinteria, Calif., whose board reconsiders removing a racist mascot today, Tuesday, March 17:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/03/17/AIM-West-Carpinteria-and-El-Salvador
Border Radio: Jose Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader and director of Indigenous Alliance without Borders, discusses border crossing on the US/Mexico border:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/03/18/Border-Radio-Jose-Matus
Before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Western Shoshone attorney argues for protection on Mount Tenabo. Part 2: Western Shoshones Mary McCloud and Chet Stevens speak at the Spring Gathering 2009.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2009/06/19/Western-Shoshone-Ninth-Circuit

Top Downloads for 2008:
Listen to Lipan Apache, Jumano Apache, San Carlos Apache, Yaqui
in Arizona and others send a clear message to Obama and the transition team: Stop the US/Mexico border wall. Speakers Eloisa Garcia Támez, (Lipan Apache), Professor, University of Texas-Brownsville/TSC, Brownsville, Texas; Daniel Castro Romero, Jr., Chair, Lipan Apache Band of Texas, Inc., Texas; José Matus, (Yaqui), Director, Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, Tucson; Michael Paul Hill, (Chiricahua Apache/Nnee'), San Carlos Apache Tribe, Ariz.; Christoper Schere, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Los Angeles, Calif; Denise Gilman, Clinical Professor, Law, University of Texas—Austin, UT Law Working Group Texas-Mexico Border Wall, Texas; Jeff Wilson, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science, University of Texas—Brownsville, UT Law Working Group Texas-Mexico Border Wall, Texas; Diana Valenzuela, Jumano Apache, Redford, Texas; Margo Tamez, Co-Founder, Lipan Apache Women Defense; Moderator: Arnoldo García, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Oakland.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/23/Lipan-Apache-to-Obama-Stop-the-Border-Wall-Construction

Navajos and Hopis protested a permit on Black Mesa for Peabody Coal, which has desecrated sacred land and led to the relocation of more than 14,000 Navajos. Recording by Mano Cockrum, Hopi-Navajo, of the Hopi and Navajo panel in Denver, Dec. 7, 2008, for Censored News.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/10/Navajo-and-Hopi-protest-Peabody-Coal-in-Denver

The Best of Longest Walk Talk Radio: Ben Carnes, Kahentinetha Horn and Bahe Katenay
Ben Carnes, Choctaw, discusses his life and Standing Deer's life and death in relation to Leonard Peltier. Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, describes the crimes at the southern border of arresting Indigenous Peoples. Bahe Katenay of Big Mountain describes Navajo relocation and resistance on Black Mesa. Recorded in the Colorado Rockies on the Longest Walk by Earthcycles. This is the Best of the Longest Walk Talk Radio.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/27/Ben-Carnes-and-Kahentinetha-Best-of-Longest-Walk-Talk-Radio

Honoring the land, honoring the youths

A tribute to Floyd Westerman, with Floyd's words on protecting the land and living in the spirit. Miwok youths on the Longest Walk -- Junior, Daniel and Vinny -- sing Miwok songs and talk with Earthcycles radio. Finally, a welcome and prayer for the land and people from the Six Nations to the Longest Walk, on the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/30/Honoring-the-land-honoring-the-youths

Oneida Comedian Charlie Hill
Comedian Charlie Hill, Oneida, from Wisconsin at the AIM-West 40-Year Reunion in San Francisco, recorded by Earthcycles
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/07/Oneida-Comedian-Charlie-Hill

Ute, Maori and Dakota
From the heart of America, comes the Best of the Longest Walk Radio, Northern Route, Part 1. Adriano Buckskin, 19, Southern Ute walker in Illinois delivers a message to youths. In Cimarron, Kansas, Maori Sharon Heta and her husband Michael Lane, Menominee, with their three daughters speak on the sovereign and inherent rights of Maori in New Zealand. Yankton Dakota in South Dakota offers songs and describe the fight to halt the construction of a commerical hogfarm in the middle of their community. These are the voices of Indigenous human rights and resistance. Produced by Earthcycles, producer Govinda Dalton and cohost Brenda Norrell on the Longest Walk Northern Route 2008.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/12/Ute-Maori-and-Dakota-Best-of-the-Longest-Walk-Part-1

Walking the talk, in the land of Miwok, Washo and Shoshone
Christmas Special: Listen to walkers on the Longest Walk northern route in the west, beginning with the Miwok at Shingle Springs, Calif. Walkers speaking include Marie Littlemoon, Willie Lonewolf, Antonio Ruiz and Weldon Austin, with Rockstar Ray. Chet Stevens, Western Shoshone and David Smith, Yomba Shoshone, describe the nuclear testing, radiation and gold mining on Shoshone treaty lands in Nevada. Western Shoshone Corbin Harney is remembered. Washo gathered near Cave Rock, speak on prayer and honoring Mother Earth. Calvin Magpie, Cheyenne Arapaho, offers a song. From South Dakota, at the site of the hogfarm protest, Yankton Dakota offer a drum song.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/26/Walking-the-talk-in-the-land-of-Miwok-Washo-and-Shoshone

Radio stations anywhere in the world may rebroadcast programs, in whole or part. Please credit Censored News and Earthcycles radio. Audios may not be sold or used for commercial purposes.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Boycott Denison Mines


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photo: Supai Gathering to halt uranium mining/Photo Brenda Norrell
(Double click on photo to enlarge.)

RED BUTTE, HAVASUPAI TERRITORY -- Toronto-based Denison Mines (International Uranium Corporation) is threatening to reopen Canyon mine and drill for uranium at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It only takes a quick look at the company to see that it has targeted Indigenous Peoples around the world with mining, poison and death.
Denison uranium mines and explorations are in White Mesa, Utah, McClean Lake in Saskatchewan, Australia, Mongolia and the Mutanga Project in Zambia.
Leaving a trail of disease and death around the world from mining, the stockholders of Denison need to know that their wealth streams from the poisoned water and lands of Indigenous Peoples. In White Mesa Ute country, near the Navajo Nation, the uranium mine was built on sacred kiva grounds and left a toxic dump of radioactivity.
During the Havasupai Gathering to halt uranium mining in the Grand Canyon last weekend, Supai Waters, carrier of the water songs, spoke of the unseen and how the Supai Guardians of the Canyon are maintaining the balance, not just here, but for the Earth.
If sacred Red Butte is violated, it will not just be the Supai and the crowds of tourists who are poisoned. It will not just be the Colorado River in Arizona and the drinking water of southern Nevada that is poisoned, the Earth will be in a state of dis-ease, imbalance.
Matthew Putesoy, vice chairman of the Havasupai Nation, said Red Butte is a traditional site sacred to the Havasuw 'Baaja.' Located in the Kaibab National Forest, Red Butte is known as Wii'i Gdwiisa, meaning "clenched-fist mountain." Havasupai leader Rex Tilousi says, "Red Butte is the lungs of our Grandmother Canyon."

Denison has staked 110 claims within the 1 million-acre area around the Grand Canyon and plans to produce nearly 110,000 tons per year of uranium ore at its Arizona 1 site over 10 years. During hearings, a water utility manager said virtually all of Southern Nevada would be left without water supplies if a mining disaster should occur. Recent legislation to protect the Grand Canyon does not apply to existing claims.
According to Denison Mines, "The company was formed through the combination of the business and operations of Denison Mines Inc. and International Uranium Corporation on December 1, 2006. Denison’s assets include an interest in two of the four licensed and operating conventional uranium mills in North America, with its 100% ownership of the White Mesa mill in Utah and its 22.5% ownership of the McClean Lake mill in Saskatchewan."

Another Canadian corporation, Cameco, is targeting Lakota lands for uranium mining. One year ago, in July, 2008, the US secretly transported 500 tons of yellowcake from Tuwaitha, Iraq, to Montreal, for the private company Cameco in Canada, according to CNN. Cameco said it was for nuclear power generation. But no doubt, there is more to this story of a secret shipment of yellowcake:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/07/iraq.uranium/index.html
Also, read how uranium mining has poisoned Lakotas and the region of the Black Hills:
http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=336&Itemid=1