Is uranium mining the path to U.S. clean energy leadership? Some say yes: nuclear energy is marketed as low-carbon and high-output. Let’s take a closer look at what this technology really brings—to our economy, our water, our land, and our future.
In-situ leach (ISL) uranium mining injects solutions into groundwater to dissolve uranium. The process mobilizes heavy metals and radioactive elements (including thorium, radium, radon, and uranium), permanently altering aquifers.Groundwater is already contaminated near many former and active ISL sites, and aquifers have been exempted from protection under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Residents often bear the cost while industry moves on.Earthworks ()U.S. ISL projects are expanding again—especially in Wyoming, Texas, South Dakota, and on NativeAmerican lands in the Black Hills (Paha Sapa).Inside Climate News ( harms-tribes/)And Then Comes the Rest of the Nuclear Fuel ChainEnrichment: Energy-intensive and largely fossil-fueled, even before the fuel gets to a reactor. Reactor operation: Requires spinning reserves—fossil plants running idle in case of outages.Allied Power Group ()Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF): According to the IAEA, remains toxic for up to 1 million years. No permanentrepository exists.IAEA ( level-waste-and-spent-nuclear-fuel)
Not really. When the entire life cycle is considered—from mining to decommissioning and spent nuclear fuel storage—nuclear energy produces significantly more greenhouse gases than wind or solar:Nuclear: from 30 up to 110 g CO2e/kWh Wind: ~11 g CO2e/kWhSolar PV: ~45 g CO2e/kWhNREL Life Cycle Emissions Factors, 2021 () Warner & Heath, 2012 (Journal of Industrial Ecology)()But That's Not AllWhen talking about nuclear energy, accidents are usually not taken into account, including those accompanied by radioactive emissions and leaks. This includes regular leaks into groundwater, as well as routine pollution during ISL mining, where water should theoretically be returned to its original state.
Nuclear power plants produce routine radioactive emissions, and spent nuclear fuel storage facilities leak, polluting neighboring waters, soil, and air with toxic radionuclides.
Chernobyl: A Legacy Measured in GenerationsOn this day in 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded.The radioactive fallout contaminated Belarus, Ukraine, and large parts of Europe. In Belarus, 23% of the land remains contaminated, and health, ecological, and economic impacts continue to this day. Over one million people continue to live in Belarus on the contaminated territories.World Nuclear Association ( security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident)
Wind, solar, small hydro, geothermal: Fast-growing, decentralized, and dropping in cost. Energy efficiency: The U.S. currently wastes about 30% of its energy through inefficiency.U.S. Department of Energy ( integration-program)Smart grids and energy storage: Already enable high-renewable mixes in several regions.
• Don’t leave toxic waste for our great-grandchildren, • Don’t alter waters to make electricity, • Don’t pretend “clean” means “invisible.”
On April 26, we mark 39 years since the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century — the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This tragedy cast a dark shadow over Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, and many other European countries.
Belarus became the country with the most contaminated territory (23%) and, as a result, the gravest long-term consequences.
Poisoned land, water, and air; the nation's compromised health; sick children — all of this has become part of Belarusian reality. This catastrophe will remain with us for hundreds of thousands of years — until all toxic radionuclides decay.
**On this dark day, Belarusians around the world hold mourning marches known as the “Chernobyl Way” to honor the memory of the disaster's victims. **
For many years, civil society in Minsk carried this event forward, defying the constraints of a totalitarian regime.The totalitarian USSR enabled the conditions that made the Chernobyl catastrophe possible. The dictatorship of Lukashenka continues to exacerbate its consequences by:
• silencing facts and downplaying risks,• putting contaminated land back into economic use,• depriving Chernobyl victims and affected people of social benefits,• repressing scientists, activists, and organizations speaking the truth about Chernobyl, many of whom have been imprisoned or are currently behind bars,• promoting dangerous Russian nuclear technologies in Belarus, at the doorstep of neighboring countries: both nuclear weapons and the Astravets NPP, which had been erected with violations of European safety standards and national legislation, in a non-transparent and undemocratic way,• discussing the construction of a second NPP while the first is underutilized for half of its operational time and the energy system has no need for its electricity.
Nuclear disasters do not occur only in authoritarian countries — democracies are not immune either.
We learned this from the example of Fukushima. Moreover, even democratic nations can exhibit authoritarian tendencies, as we have seen in the past decade.
Democratic countries with nuclear plants may become targets of nuclear terrorism and military aggression, as demonstrated by Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and on Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhya NPP in 2022 and 2025.
At the same time, the international democratic community and the IAEA have proven incapable of effectively addressing the problems of nuclear blackmail, military attacks on nuclear facilities, or dealing with the consequences of nuclear disasters.
Countries are not abandoning nuclear energy — instead, they present it as climate-friendly and conditionally “green,” using calculations that ignore technological realities and associated risks, as well as the full nuclear fuel cycle. The issue of spent nuclear fuel, which remains toxic for up to a million years (according to the IAEA), remains unresolved.
**The world’s fleet of operating nuclear power plants is aging. **
Yet instead of transitioning to cheaper, more accessible energy generation technologies — including renewables — many countries are extending the life of existing plants and attempting to restart shut- down reactors, creating significant safety risks.Nuclear materials continue to spread globally, and the threat of nuclear conflict is growing.
• Immediately shut down and decommission the Astravets NPP, which is unsafe and unnecessary.• Return Belarus to its nuclear-free and neutral status.• Remove Chernobyl-contaminated areas from economic use.• Restore social support for people affected by the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.• Resume scientific research on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and reestablish cooperation with the global scientific community for this purpose.• Release environmental activists and all other political prisoners, including participants in the anti-nuclear movement.• Support Belarus’ transition to a sustainable energy system based primarily on renewable and decentralized sources.
• Consider the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus as a violation of the principles of collective security.• Strip nuclear energy from green agendas (such as ESG frameworks and climate finance mechanisms).• Prioritize conventional deterrence means and strategies over nuclear weapons.• Ban the trade of uranium and nuclear technologies with aggressor states (such as the Russian Federation).• Prevent the militarization of nuclear facilities by strengthening international legal frameworks and undertaking coordinated action within the global community.• Honor the memory of the victims of the Chernobyl disaster and continue supporting liquidators and those affected.• Express solidarity with the people of Ukraine, who faced nuclear threats during acts of military aggression.
We also appeal to the member states of the IAEA with a proposal to reconsider the organization's core priorities and put human safety above profits and the ambitions of individual states. We call on the IAEA to take the risks associated with nuclear technology use and proliferation seriously. To that end, we urge the IAEA to revise its guarantees, protocols, and mechanisms in such a way that the organization, which is promoting a so-called "nuclear renaissance," bears legal and financial responsibility for the consequences of nuclear accidents and nuclear terrorism.
The resolution was adopted by
NGO Ecohome, Green Network, Belarusian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, Dapamoga, Solidarity Movement “Together,” Narodnaya Hramada, the United Civic Party, Our House, and the RE:Belarus Association of Belarusian Political Prisoners, Association of Belarusian Political Prisoners "Da Voli," and supported by the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.