Biden to designate Grand Canyon national monument in climate change push blocking future uranium mining

President Biden is to announce a historic national park designation for the Grand Canyon Tuesday as part of a $44 million commitment "to strengthen climate resilience across our national park system." 

The move effectively blocks future mining of uranium, the key element used to power nuclear reactors and for other medical, industrial and defense purposes. 

A White House official said the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona –  will conserve nearly 1 million acres of greater Grand Canyon landscape sacred to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples and advance "Biden’s historic climate and conservation agenda."