Posted November 24, 2011
Steve Brown, a Certified Health Physicist who has done extensive consulting for Powertech Uranium Corp., recently organized and moderated a workshop on radiation and uranium mining in Danville, Virginia. Danville is near Virginia Uranium, Inc.'s proposed Coles Hill uranium mining and milling project.
Brown conducted a similar event in February 2008 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Brown used many of the same presenters for both the Danville and Fort Collins events, including two professors from CSU's Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences. In both workshops, the majority of the presenters were uranium industry executives or consultants.
In both Fort Collins and Danville, start-up uranium companies are facing intense local opposition to proposed uranium mining projects
In his public presentations, Brown admonishes his listeners to evaluate a speaker's credibility based on the person's work experience and advanced degrees. So it was surprising to see a November 12 news story on the WSLS Channel 10 website about the Danville workshop with a quote by "Colorado State University professor, Dr. Steve Brown".
Brown is neither a CSU professor nor a PhD. Brown has never been a professor at CSU, according to Jac Nickoloff, Head of the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences. And Brown's own bio submitted in 2009 to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicates that his only advanced degree is a M.S. in physical science from West Chester University.
It is unclear how this description of Brown made it into the news story. According to the reporter who wrote the story, Brown said he was "with" CSU and was a PhD, but he was not a professor. On November 14 the reporter said she would double check her notes and make any necessary corrections. As of November 24, no corrections have been made.
The CSU Department of Public Relations was notified on November 15 of this mischaracterization of Brown's association with the university but has apparently not acted to correct the article.
JW
"Danville uranium meeting hears from experts on mining" by Morgan Donnelly, WSLS 10 (Roanoke, Virginia) - November 12, 2011 (PDF 49 KB): http://www.powertechexposed.com/Danville%20uranium%20meeting.pdf
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