Posted: Monday, January 23, 2012 3:07 pm
RICHMOND - Citizens from across the state converged in the Capitol Monday to call on their elected representatives in the General Assembly to keep Virginia's 30-year ban on uranium mining.
Following significant warnings from the National Academy of Sciences, the ban will now remain in place for 2012. Citizens are seeking to make that victory permanent.
To highlight their message, they offered legislators "yellowcake" cupcakes with the message: "These yellow cakes are not harmful - but making uranium yellowcake and leaving behind radioactive waste in Virginia is. Protect our health, our heritage and our future. Keep the Ban on Uranium Mining in Virginia."
Also, the Keep the Ban Coalition announced that over the last year, more than 10,000 citizens have signed an online petition or sent emails to Virginia legislators urging them to keep the ban, and 102 organizations and government entities - from the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Roanoke to the state chapter of the NAACP and Halifax County Chamber of Commerce - have either passed a resolution or taken other action expressing deep concerns about impacts that would result from lifting the ban.
"Virginia Conservation Network works on a broad range of environmental issues all across the state, but never have I seen such an issue galvanize people like the prospect of uranium mining," said director Nathan Lott.
"Black and white, urban and rural, Republican and Democrat - Virginians agree that mining is just too risky."
Read more:
http://www.wpcva.com/news/article_f5c9bea6-45fd-11e1-bd23-0019bb2963f4.html#start
