PHOENIX (NEWSnet/AP) —Navajo Nation plans to test a tribal law that bans uranium from being transported on its land, police to stop trucks carrying the mineral and return to the mine where it was extracted in Arizona.

But before tribal police could catch up with two semi-trucks on federal highways, they learned the vehicles under contract with Energy Fuels Inc. no longer were on the reservation.

Navajo President Buu Nygren vowed to continue the plan to enact roadblocks while the tribe develops regulations over the first major shipments of uranium ore through the reservation in years.

“Obviously, the higher courts are going to have to tell us who is right and who is wrong,” he told The Associated Press. “But in the meantime, you're in the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.”

In 2012 ,the tribe passed a law to ban transportation of uranium on the reservation that extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. But the law exempts state and federal highways that Energy Fuels has designated as hauling routes between Pinyon Plain Mine south of Grand Canyon National Park for processing in Blanding, Utah.

Even so, Nygren and Navajo Attorney General Ethel Branch believe the tribe is on solid legal footing, with a plan for police to block federal highways, detain drivers and prevent them from traveling farther onto the reservation.

Energy Fuels said it began hauling the ore as planned Tuesday and had informed federal, state, county and tribal officials about the legal requirements, safety, emergency response and shipping of uranium ore.

“Tens of thousands of thousands of trucks have safely transported uranium ore across northern Arizona since the 1980s with no adverse health or environmental effects,” said Mark Chalmers, the company's president and chief executive.

Arizona Department of Transportation and Arizona Department of Public Safety, which have jurisdiction on state and federal highways through the reservation, didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

Kaibab National Forest, where the mine is permitted, said it was notified after hauling began, then contacted tribes, local officials and others, spokeswoman Brienne Pettit said. 

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