Comment: Notice the following statement, we all need to send our concerns to the NAS and DEMAND WE SHOULD ATTEND PUBLIC MEETINGS IN VIRGINIA: There will be a 20-day public comment period on the panel selection at http://www.nationalacademies.org/,
Kearney said. Uranium is located all over Virginia, so people of VA, wake up and smell the threat of uranium mining will happen even in the plush fields of the famous horse's areas!
By John Crane
Published: December 8, 2009
The $1.4 million study to determine whether uranium can be mined and milled safely in the commonwealth will likely be paid for in installments, says the head of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research.
Michael Karmis, director of the center at Virginia Tech, said Tuesday the center would probably fund the study by the National Research Council in payments based on the study’s progress.
Virginia has had a moratorium on uranium mining since 1982.
VUI, through Virginia Tech’s Center for Coal and Energy Research, would pay for the study’s first phase focusing on the technical and public-safety aspects of mining.
Virginia Tech’s Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research would handle the money and contract with the NAS/NRC for the study. The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission would be the study’s sponsor.
The NRC expressed concerns in a Nov. 23 letter to Karmis about VUI’s proposal to provide “incremental funding” for the study to determine whether uranium can be mined and milled safely in the commonwealth.
The NRC said several issues must be addressed before the study proceeds, including “the requirement for independence of the NRC in carrying out the study” and “full transparency regarding the study’s funding.”
Karmis has not responded to the NRC’s letter, said NRC spokesman William Kearney.
“We’re waiting for a response to clarify these outstanding issues (before the study can be approved),” Kearney said Tuesday.
Karmis said officials from Virginia Tech, VUI and the NRC will meet to discuss the contract and a guarantee of funding before the study is approved.
Once the contract is drawn up and the study approved, the NRC will select a panel to perform the study.
There will be a 20-day public comment period on the panel selection at http://www.nationalacademies.org/,
Kearney said.
Karmis said one issue brought up in the NRC’s letter was resolved at a meeting of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission last week.
The word “outreach” was eliminated from an item in the proposed study’s statement of task because it pre-judged the study’s outcome, Karmis said
Read more at:
http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/karmis_responds_to_issues_in_uranium_study_letter/16172/
