Uranium tour just another junket

By Published by The Editorial Board
Published: June 5, 2010

To the editor:

Why didn’t Virginia Uranium, Inc. schedule a trip to an operating Areva uranium mine in France for our elected officials?

After 50 years of uranium mining it appears that France has sent her miners packing for the Gobi Desert, Africa, Canada and probably to Virginia if the moratorium is lifted.

 France now deals with the clean-up and perpetual monitoring of more than 200 sites, around half of them owned by Areva.

Bessines, destination of the VUI tour, extracted ore from 1948 through 1996.

So reclamation of the mine is fairly new. It would seem sensible to have more than a decade of data on which to determine the success of containing wastes that remain radioactive for thousands of years.

“C’est la vie.”

At present, the proposed trip to France seems nothing more than a nice gift to offer our elected officials.

KAREN B. MAUTE
Danville, VA

Refer to link below to read the purpose of the letter:

Key officials won’t tour France’s uranium site

http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/key_officials_wont_tour_frances_uranium_site/21617/

Read more:
http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/danville_letters/article/uranium_tour_just_another_junket/21701/