Reporter Michael Sluss ("Del.Don Merricks opposed to mining uranium," Dec. 7) quotes Virginia Uranium Inc. representative Patrick Wales as describing the proposed uranium mine in Pittsylvania County as having "a remarkably small footprint." Really?
Perhaps only 500acres would be occupied mine infrastructure, but the land and water affected is likely to be several counties and cities in extent, plus the adverse impact of the stigma of uranium mining on farms, academies and real estate. Not a "small footprint."
Imagine a Superstorm Sandy landing on an operating uranium mine. Flooded mine shafts with radioactive water escaping into Lake Gaston, pulverized radioactive rock blown long distances, security employees abandoning ship to look after their families ... not a reassuring picture.
I'll take my cue from Peter deFur, the Virginia Commonwealth University ecology professor who served on the National Research Council uranium mining study committee and concluded, "I hope we do not" allow uranium mining in Virginia. He noted "the benefits of uranium mining will accrue to private interests for the most part."
Your Dec. 9 editorial "Risks are too great to lift uranium moratorium" was correct. One hopes our General Assembly representatives will come to the same conclusion.
RUPERT CUTLER
ROANOKE
http://m.roanoke.com/mapp/story.aspx?arcID=317816
MEDIA RELEASE: Pinehouse residents decry imminent signing of uranium “gag agreement”
For Immediate Release
December 12, 2012
Pinehouse residents decry imminent signing of uranium “gag agreement”
At a community meeting held last night, Pinehouse Mayor Mike Natomagan announced that the agreement, which critics say amounts to a gag order that violates residents’ Charter rights, will be signed even though residents have not yet been provided with a copy of the agreement.
“There are a lot of questions about the agreement in the community, and we’re being told that a confidentiality clause means we can’t get the answers we need from our administration,” says Pinehouse resident John Smerek. “To us, it’s a simple issue of democracy. People have a right to see what’s in an agreement before it’s signed, not after. But even though we’ve asked to see the agreement and to have input, the residents here have been totally shut out of the process.”
“It’s evident that a land claim is being negotiated without my consent or knowledge. It’s tough to go on promises, but promises are all we’ve got about this agreement,” adds Pinehouse resident Dale Smith. “You wouldn’t sign a mortgage without knowing the cost of the house or the details, but that’s what we’re being asked to do. If this is truly a good deal for us, why are Cameco, Areva and the council keeping it secret and rushing to ram it through as quickly as possible?”
Residents of Pinehouse have retained legal counsel and have sent a letter to Mayor Natomagan requesting that signing of the agreement be delayed “to allow a consultative process that permits full, prior and informed consent of those affected and potentially affected by the terms and implementation of that Agreement.”
The letter, prepared by Kowalchuk Law Office, also outlined numerous concerns with the agreement, including “the impact of the Agreement on: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms including s.35 and the duty to consult, as well as s.7 (the right to life, liberty and security of the person) and s.2(b) (freedom of expression); Aboriginal treaties; international law and environmental statutes.”
Residents were given their first opportunity to view a summary of the agreement at a November 13 meeting, where they were provided with a summary of the deal, which includes a number of controversial terms, including pledging community support for current, proposed and future Cameco and Areva operations and the promise that Pinehouse will “Make reasonable efforts to ensure Pinehouse members do not say or do anything that interferes with or delays Cameco/Areva’s mining, or do or say anything that is not consistent with Pinehouse’s promises under the Collaboration Agreement.”
Residents are calling on Pinehouse, Cameco and Areva to delay signing of the agreement until consultations with the community have been completed and terms that may violate residents’ Charter rights are removed or amended.
Messages supporting Pinehouse residents and calling for a delay in signing the agreement have come in from across Canada and as far away as Australia, the UK and Germany.
If the agreement is signed as announced, residents plan to proceed with a court injunction against implementation of the agreement.
John Smerek, Pinehouse resident, 306-884-2341
http://committeeforfuturegenerations.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/media-release-pinehouse-residents-decry-imminent-signing-of-uranium-gag-agreement/
Nuclear Canada: Virginia proposal is looking at mining grades of 0.06%.
Canada sits atop one of the richest uranium reserves in the world, not only in terms of quantity (most recently estimated at 383,000 tonnes) but in terms of quality. Saskatchewan’s Cigar Lake mine, when it begins operations in mid-2013, will produce ore containing some 18-20% U3O8 (triuranium octoxide), the second purest uranium ore in the world. Even for Saskatchewan, Cigar Lake is unusual, as only one other mine there tops a grade of 3% U3O8. By contrast, the Virginia proposal is looking at mining grades of 0.06%. They’ll have to dig up 300 times as much rock to bear out the same amount of uranium as Cigar Lake. The entire US has less than one third the reserves of Canada, and imports 95% of the fuel used in its nuclear reactors. If energy independence is the goal, the US won’t be able to achieve it through nuclear power… unless they annex Canada…
When people think of nuclear waste, it’s usually in terms of what we do with spent fuel rods, which even the most deluded science fiction fans will know are bad news. We don’t tend to think in terms of what happens before the uranium arrives at the plant. Just like the oil sands projects, the uranium mining industry relies on a hell of a lot of water and a cocktail of poisons, carcinogens and other nasty chemicals to retrieve the desired elements. Extracted rock must be broken, ground down, and chemically processed to remove the uranium, and then… what? Well, the waste rock (rock that does not contain enough uranium to be worth processing) is generally stored in above ground pits in which the newly exposed materials are free to leach into the local environment. The tailings are the slurry that is left over from uranium processing, a mixture of water, fine-grained solids and chemical residuals. In a proper libertarian world, we’d still be dumping both the waste rock and tailings directly into the local lakes and rivers, but Canada enacted a series of regulations to prevent this from recurring. Instead, we have taken to transforming existing lakes into impoundments, barricaded above-ground areas that allow the toxic mess to settle underwater. Forever. In areas of up to 50 hectares. That will (must) never leak into local streams, underground water supplies, or affect local flora or fauna.
Aside from pits or tailings ponds, ocean disposal and back-filling are options, of a sort. While potential remains for back-filling to leach loosened chemicals into ground water supplies, it seems a good option for closed mines. At the very least, it does reduce one other hazard; mines, after all, can collapse from time to time, and a filled-in mine is less of a worry than a big, gaping hole. Witness this year’s frack-out in the Louisiana Bayou, or the 1980 Lake Peigneur disaster for a taste of what can happen then.
http://kingeofdremes.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/nuclear-canada/
December 12, 2012
Pinehouse residents decry imminent signing of uranium “gag agreement”
Signing ceremony for secretive deal announced despite community opposition: Canada
Residents of the northern Saskatchewan village of Pinehouse feel betrayed and appalled that a controversial “Collaboration Agreement” between the village and uranium giants Cameco and Areva is set to be signed today, despite community concerns and opposition to the deal.At a community meeting held last night, Pinehouse Mayor Mike Natomagan announced that the agreement, which critics say amounts to a gag order that violates residents’ Charter rights, will be signed even though residents have not yet been provided with a copy of the agreement.
“There are a lot of questions about the agreement in the community, and we’re being told that a confidentiality clause means we can’t get the answers we need from our administration,” says Pinehouse resident John Smerek. “To us, it’s a simple issue of democracy. People have a right to see what’s in an agreement before it’s signed, not after. But even though we’ve asked to see the agreement and to have input, the residents here have been totally shut out of the process.”
“It’s evident that a land claim is being negotiated without my consent or knowledge. It’s tough to go on promises, but promises are all we’ve got about this agreement,” adds Pinehouse resident Dale Smith. “You wouldn’t sign a mortgage without knowing the cost of the house or the details, but that’s what we’re being asked to do. If this is truly a good deal for us, why are Cameco, Areva and the council keeping it secret and rushing to ram it through as quickly as possible?”
Residents of Pinehouse have retained legal counsel and have sent a letter to Mayor Natomagan requesting that signing of the agreement be delayed “to allow a consultative process that permits full, prior and informed consent of those affected and potentially affected by the terms and implementation of that Agreement.”
The letter, prepared by Kowalchuk Law Office, also outlined numerous concerns with the agreement, including “the impact of the Agreement on: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms including s.35 and the duty to consult, as well as s.7 (the right to life, liberty and security of the person) and s.2(b) (freedom of expression); Aboriginal treaties; international law and environmental statutes.”
Residents were given their first opportunity to view a summary of the agreement at a November 13 meeting, where they were provided with a summary of the deal, which includes a number of controversial terms, including pledging community support for current, proposed and future Cameco and Areva operations and the promise that Pinehouse will “Make reasonable efforts to ensure Pinehouse members do not say or do anything that interferes with or delays Cameco/Areva’s mining, or do or say anything that is not consistent with Pinehouse’s promises under the Collaboration Agreement.”
Residents are calling on Pinehouse, Cameco and Areva to delay signing of the agreement until consultations with the community have been completed and terms that may violate residents’ Charter rights are removed or amended.
Messages supporting Pinehouse residents and calling for a delay in signing the agreement have come in from across Canada and as far away as Australia, the UK and Germany.
If the agreement is signed as announced, residents plan to proceed with a court injunction against implementation of the agreement.
-30-
Media Contacts:John Smerek, Pinehouse resident, 306-884-2341
http://committeeforfuturegenerations.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/media-release-pinehouse-residents-decry-imminent-signing-of-uranium-gag-agreement/
Nuclear Canada: Virginia proposal is looking at mining grades of 0.06%.
Canada sits atop one of the richest uranium reserves in the world, not only in terms of quantity (most recently estimated at 383,000 tonnes) but in terms of quality. Saskatchewan’s Cigar Lake mine, when it begins operations in mid-2013, will produce ore containing some 18-20% U3O8 (triuranium octoxide), the second purest uranium ore in the world. Even for Saskatchewan, Cigar Lake is unusual, as only one other mine there tops a grade of 3% U3O8. By contrast, the Virginia proposal is looking at mining grades of 0.06%. They’ll have to dig up 300 times as much rock to bear out the same amount of uranium as Cigar Lake. The entire US has less than one third the reserves of Canada, and imports 95% of the fuel used in its nuclear reactors. If energy independence is the goal, the US won’t be able to achieve it through nuclear power… unless they annex Canada…
When people think of nuclear waste, it’s usually in terms of what we do with spent fuel rods, which even the most deluded science fiction fans will know are bad news. We don’t tend to think in terms of what happens before the uranium arrives at the plant. Just like the oil sands projects, the uranium mining industry relies on a hell of a lot of water and a cocktail of poisons, carcinogens and other nasty chemicals to retrieve the desired elements. Extracted rock must be broken, ground down, and chemically processed to remove the uranium, and then… what? Well, the waste rock (rock that does not contain enough uranium to be worth processing) is generally stored in above ground pits in which the newly exposed materials are free to leach into the local environment. The tailings are the slurry that is left over from uranium processing, a mixture of water, fine-grained solids and chemical residuals. In a proper libertarian world, we’d still be dumping both the waste rock and tailings directly into the local lakes and rivers, but Canada enacted a series of regulations to prevent this from recurring. Instead, we have taken to transforming existing lakes into impoundments, barricaded above-ground areas that allow the toxic mess to settle underwater. Forever. In areas of up to 50 hectares. That will (must) never leak into local streams, underground water supplies, or affect local flora or fauna.
Aside from pits or tailings ponds, ocean disposal and back-filling are options, of a sort. While potential remains for back-filling to leach loosened chemicals into ground water supplies, it seems a good option for closed mines. At the very least, it does reduce one other hazard; mines, after all, can collapse from time to time, and a filled-in mine is less of a worry than a big, gaping hole. Witness this year’s frack-out in the Louisiana Bayou, or the 1980 Lake Peigneur disaster for a taste of what can happen then.
http://kingeofdremes.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/nuclear-canada/
