A uranium mine in Arizona located just 7 miles south of the Grand Canyon national park has begun operations, one of the first in the US to open in eight years.
The opening of the Pinyon Plain mine comes as the US seeks to boost domestic production of the mineral needed for nuclear energy and accelerate divesting from fossil fuels.
But the mine has faced decades of fierce opposition from the Havasupai Tribe, who fear that its operations could contaminate its sole source of drinking water and damage important cultural sites.
“It’s a very, very sad situation – it’s upsetting a lot of tribes in this region,” said Carletta Tilousi, a former Havasupai council member who has been leading the tribe’s opposition to uranium mining in the south-west. “But I think we all knew this was eventually going to happen.”