United States | Fission impossible?

How Russia’s war could revive America’s uranium industry

The climate crisis and invasion of Ukraine are transforming the politics of nuclear power

Profile view of a man standing on wooden debris, on a sunny day, looking over the tailings disposal area at a uranium processing mill in the American Southwest, 1975. Image courtesy US Department of Energy. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
|White Mesa, Utah

Edward abbey, an author, national-park ranger and relentless curmudgeon, once described south-eastern Utah as the “most arid, most hostile, most lonesome…quarter of the state”, and “the best part by far.” Abbey’s favourite bit of Utah is home to red sandstone canyons, sacred tribal lands, all manner of desert critters—and America’s only operating uranium mill.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Fission impossible?”

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