Navajo EPA opposes Church Rock uranium project as New Mexico challenges license renewal
WINDOW ROCK
The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency remains opposed to a proposed in situ uranium recovery operation at Church Rock and Crownpoint, its executive director said, as New Mexico challenges the project’s license renewal.
A three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hear oral argument Oct. 5 on the state’s request to intervene in the relicensing of the Crownpoint Uranium Project, a never-built facility licensed to NuFuels Inc., a subsidiary of Canada’s Laramide Resources Ltd.
The Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005, or DNRPA, bars uranium mining and processing in Navajo Indian Country, including in situ leaching. Executive Order 04-2023 reaffirmed it.
“We still oppose the desire of the company to do the in situ recovery process,” Navajo EPA Executive Director Stephen Etsitty said. “We stand behind the DNRPA. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you we’re opposed to it.”
The NRC issued Source Material License SUA-1580 to Hydro Resources Inc. in 1998. It approved an indirect change of control from Uranium Resources Inc. to Laramide in 2016. The transaction closed in January 2017, and the NRC later amended the license to reflect HRI’s name change to NuFuels.
To read the full article, please see the Sept. 17, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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