Wednesday, March 9, 2011 9:30 AM EST
I would like to thank Dr. Randy Randol for his letter to the editor, which I read in the Chatham Star-Tribune this past Wednesday, March 2.
You stated in that letter that, "...It made little sense to ban uranium mining in Virginia 30 years ago."
Having studied this issue for several years, I have concluded that the Virginia General Assembly had the best interests of the voting Virginians at heart in adopting this moratorium in 1982.
This decision arose from scientific investigation and the discovery of how much damage had already been caused by mining uranium in localities far more remote and with far less annual rainfall than is currently the case here in Pittsylvania County.
Before making a statement like the one you made in last week's Chatham paper, you might do well to realize that those legislators were actually trying to protect us by banning activities that would render us, here and living within and around the "sacrifice zone," helpless in our defense of our lives and livelihood, and the health of us all.
If you do the research you will see that nothing has changed within the uranium mining industry since the ban was enacted in 1982.
One of the reasons that these Canadian mining companies are coming here to piedmont Virginia is that the Canadian government has closed down all uranium mining activity (with the exception of Saskatchewan) because of the filth and associated health problems that still surround the mining phase of the nuclear cycle.
This flies in the face of your statement that "over the last 30 years we have made significant advances in the technology of uranium mining."
I would suggest that you Google Uravan, Colorado, for a good look at the devastation resulting from mining uranium.
And why mention that 119 million pounds of uranium would last us here in Virginia for 75 years?
That is at present capacity, and taking the false position that we here in Virginia would ever have even one light bulb that was lit using the lode at Coles Hill.
Walter Coles himself has stated that his yellow cake would be sold to the highest bidder.
It will be sold on the open commodities markets and no one will ever know, really, who buys it.
Neither will this mother-lode of uranium be worth anything as a tax revenue for Virginia.
We have a law here which allows corporations to not pay a state income tax on anything produced in Virginia that is then sold out of state.
See Imperial Coal Co .vs. State of Virginia in 1934 to learn of this advantage on state corporate income taxes.
In closing, I might add that the leading candidate for being a national high level radioactive waste dump, according to Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on Radioactive Waste Disposal, seems to be the granite formations of the Appalachian Mountain chain.
That ought to bring it to a lot more backyards. Maybe even yours, Dr. Randol.
Hunter Austin
Hurt, VA
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2011/03/10/chatham/opinion/opinion13.txt
