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High Country News

High Country News

A nonprofit independent magazine of unblinking journalism that shines a light on all of the complexities of the West.

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HCN has covered the lands, wildlife and communities of the Western U.S. for more than 50 years. Get to know the West better by signing up to receive HCN’s on-the-ground reporting and investigations in your inbox.

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Nuclear Energy

Posted inArticles

EPA takes unprecedented step to remove uranium waste from the Navajo Nation

by Natalia Mesa January 17, 2025January 23, 2025

The decision opens the door for new ways to manage uranium pollution on tribal land.

Posted inArticles

Jimmy Carter’s mixed environmental record

by Jonathan Thompson January 3, 2025January 2, 2025

The former president emphasized conservation, protection — and coal mining.

Posted inArticles

Beautiful Bears Ears is at risk, again

by Jonathan Thompson November 22, 2024November 22, 2024

What are the consequences for the land if the incoming president shrinks the national monument?

Powerlines stretch over a Southern California neighborhood.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie

How the climate is changing your energy bill 

by Erin X. Wong November 1, 2024December 4, 2024

Wildfires and winter storms are costing utilities and families.

Posted inArticles

Data centers could set back climate progress

by Jonathan Thompson June 27, 2024August 8, 2024

AI, cryptocurrency “mining” and our digital lifestyles imperil the energy transition — and the planet.

Large pipes frame the entrance of Tony M. Uranium Mine. Consolidated Uranium claims it is beginning the process of reopening the long-idle mine.
Posted inArticles

Is uranium poised for a renaissance?

by Jonathan Thompson January 25, 2024February 1, 2024

As prices climb, mining proposals proliferate. But it might just be hype.

Posted inArticles

What downwinders inherited at Trinity

by Sean J Patrick Carney August 21, 2023January 24, 2024

In the days of ’Oppenheimer,’ an exhibition advocates expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Posted inArticles

See inside the Grand Canyon region’s new monument

by Len Necefer August 11, 2023March 18, 2024

A weeklong journey through the under-documented region, which now has new protections.

Students and community members demand President Biden stop the Willow Project by unfurling a banner on the Ellipse outside the White House in December 2022 in Washington, DC.
Posted inArticles

The Willow project is part of a larger trend: energy colonialism

by Jonathan Thompson March 16, 2023January 24, 2024

Five decades ago, the late Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah described America’s ‘power madness.’

Posted inArticles

Plans for a new uranium mill in Utah announced

by Jonathan Thompson January 26, 2023January 24, 2024

Fierce opposition to the project is likely.

Posted inArticles

Will the Senate ban uranium mining in the Grand Canyon?

by Brett Marsh December 14, 2022January 24, 2024

Before the legislative slate is wiped clean on Jan. 3, senators needs to pass the Grand Canyon Protection Act.

Posted inArticles

Radioactive waste sickened his community. Then it caught up with him.

by Yvette Cabrera December 2, 2022January 24, 2024

Earl Tulley fought for justice for the Navajo communities harmed by uranium mining. Then he found a lump in his jaw.

Posted inArticles

The untold story of the Pacific Northwest’s nuclear past

by Marianne Dhenin October 14, 2022January 24, 2024

‘Atomic Days’ offers a compelling, fact-packed introduction to the most toxic place in the nation.

Posted inArticles

Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini say it’s time to return Diablo Canyon lands to Indigenous hands

by Noah Schlager September 20, 2022January 24, 2024

The tribe, also known as the Northern Chumash, are requesting the return of their coastal home, currently occupied by PG&E’s nuclear power plant.

Posted inArticles

The Green New Deal didn’t crash California’s grid

by Jonathan Thompson September 15, 2022January 24, 2024

Climate change is wrecking the electricity system.

Posted inArticles

The divide over Diablo

by Jonathan Thompson September 13, 2022January 25, 2024

Greens battle greens over the fate of California’s last nuke plant.

Posted inSeptember 1, 2022: Going Under

Can ravaged economies be healed with a restoration industry?

by Jonathan Thompson August 29, 2022January 24, 2024

Cleaning up the West could be as lucrative as wrecking it.

Posted inArticles

A community sacrificed to uranium mine pollution

by Mark Olalde, Maya Miller and ProPublica August 23, 2022January 24, 2024

A mining company and government agencies repeatedly said they’d clean up waste in Homestake, New Mexico. Instead, they’re buying out homeowners.

Posted inArticles

The climate bill’s blind spot

by Jonathan Thompson August 18, 2022January 24, 2024

A closer look at the good and the bad of specific provisions in the historic climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Posted inArticles

The rise of the restoration economy

by Jonathan Thompson July 21, 2022May 14, 2024

Filling the economic void left by the extraction economy by healing the land.

Posts pagination

1 2 3 … 5 Older posts

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