Comment: The nukes, including our gov want nuke power regardless of the people well being but the nukes are pushing the uranium mining in Virginia, Coles Hill sits on the Chatham Fault. Keep the uranium ban, no more nukes!
By Deirdre Fernandes
The Virginian-Pilot
August 24, 2011
Virginia Uranium Inc. representatives could have picked a better day to refute a Virginia Beach study on the potential dangers of a mining operation in south-central Virginia during a natural disaster.
But there they were in front of City Council three hours after a rare earthquake and with Beach officials preparing for a possible hurricane this weekend.
Alan Kuhn, a consultant for Virginia Uranium, which wants the state to lift its ban on uranium mining so the company can extract the deposits in Pittsylvania County, called the Beach's study flawed and "based on unrealistic assumptions."
The Beach study, conducted by an engineering firm for $437,000, found that in the worst case of massive flooding at the mining operation, the city's water supply in Lake Gaston could be temporarily contaminated.
Council members, however, pointed out that although earthquakes are unusual in Virginia, the state had just experienced a 5.8-magnitude temblor earlier in the day.
The Gulf oil spill and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have shown that with some events, you "can't always predict it based on a history," Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson said.
Walter Coles Sr., the chairman of Virginia Uranium, said the earthquake did not hurt the company's message.
He said Virginia Uranium will continue rebutting the Beach's findings.
Beach Public Utilities Director Tom Leahy said, however, that Kuhn's analysis was a "misunderstanding" of the study. The segment of the Beach's report that Kuhn questioned assumed the waste would have entered the river by that point during a flood, Leahy said.
"It's a figment of his misinterpretation," Leahy said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
Read more:
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/08/uraniummining-company-disputes-va-beach-study
To see VUI silly spill:
http://www.vbgov.com/video.aspx?type=Council&media=113fa3628361b210VgnVCM100000190c640a____
