Group Seeks to Mine Uranium in Virginia - Residents Concerned for Health, Safety, and Environment
source: http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/uranium_mining_opponents_rea...
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http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/urani...
"Virginia Uranium Inc. seeks to mine and mill a 119-million pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham. Virginia has had a moratorium on uranium mining since 1982.Jack Dunavant, chairman of Southside Concerned Citizens, said the study will be biased in favor of pro-mining interests.
...$1.4 million will pay for NAS/NRC staff working for the committee members and for the committee members’ travel and lodging expenses for meetings, Karmis said.
“If the study is not tainted, which I’m sure it will be, we’ll welcome it,” Dunavant said, adding that if the study becomes compromised, “we’ll certainly bring it to people’s attention.”
Dunavant questions whether a pile of powdered milling waste sitting in a flood plain above a river bed can be controlled, especially given the region’s rainy climate.
... the U.S. Department of Energy has said the country doesn’t need new uranium supply since the nation can downblend enriched uranium.
Also, the commonwealth has a responsibility to the citizens to pay for the second part of the study that would examine mining and milling’s socioeconomic impacts — how it would affect the local economy, and the water supply for Southside, Virginia Beach and North Carolina, and centuries of local history, Nenon said."
With recent debates focusing on the enrichment of Uranium in Iran and the possible construction of new nuclear plants here in the U.S., this story has been swept under the rug. It is much more pressing: the environmental and societal could very well be ignored by big interests groups with lots of money. Though mining could boost the local economy for a while, the runoff from this project could be disastrous.
Thoughts?
