Comment: Keep the u ban!
By STEVE SZKOTAK
Associated Press
Published: March 04, 2011
RICHMOND — A company seeking to mine the largest uranium deposit in the United States will push for legislation in 2012 to end a 29-year Virginia ban on uranium mining, a top executive told investors.
Walter Coles Jr., executive vice president of Virginia Uranium Inc., tells the investors the political climate in Virginia is "fairly pro-nuclear" and said the company has worked to win over legislators who will decide whether the ban should be lifted.
In a webcast with the investors recorded in February, Coles said Virginia Uranium has lined up sponsors of the legislation.
"In January of 2012, we will have a bill in the state legislature that directs the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to develop the regulations for uranium mining," Coles said during the webcast.
A National Academy of Sciences committee is assessing the statewide impacts of mining a 119-million pound uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County, near the North Carolina border. Its conclusions are due by year's end and are expected to be critical in any decision to lift the 1982 ban.
But the Southern Environmental Law Center, which opposes the uranium mining, said Coles' statements to investors signals Virginia Uranium's intentions to push forward with its efforts to tap the huge ore deposit before the NAS releases its findings.
"Obviously they're pressing forward and don't seem to be concerned to hear what the National Academy of Sciences might say," Cale Jaffe, a staff attorney with the environmental group, said after reviewing the webcast.
The NAS study is one of four under way examining a range of issues related to uranium mining, and Jaffe argues that the General Assembly should not rush to consider lifting the ban until all are complete.
"Altogether, more than $2.2 million is being invested in these studies," Jaffe wrote to legislators at the close of the session last month. "We urge you to reject as premature efforts to force legislation in 2012 — before the studies have been disseminated."
In his remarks to investors, Coles outlined the history of the Coles Hill uranium deposit, the enactment of the 1982 moratorium and the state's current political climate. He cites the election of Gov. Bob McDonnell and the Republican's goal to make Virginia the East Coast energy capital.
"Generally speaking in Virginia right now there's a shift in the pendulum from the Democratic Party back to the Republican Party," Cole said. "The shift towards the Republicans is beneficial for us," though he adds the company has solid relationships with Democrats.
The House is majority Republican, while Democrats have the edge in the Senate.
Opponents of lifting the moratorium cite the hazards of uranium mining in a wet-weather East Coast environment. They fear radioactive tailings — the byproduct of removing the ore from rock — will be scattered throughout the region and into water sources that supply localities in Hampton Roads, 200 miles away.
In his letter to legislators, Jaffe said Virginia's "wet-weather climate creates severe risks for dam failures and downstream contamination." He cites as an example Hurricane Camille, which in 1969 drenched parts of central Virginia with 31 inches of rain.
http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2011/mar/04/uranium-exec-wants-end-va-mining-ban-2012-ar-884164/
