08:05 am 10/17/11
The feelings of those attending the uranium symposium Friday night at Halifax County High School could best be summed up by Delegate James Edmunds, who drew loud applause when saying the decision Virginia legislators make on whether to lift the 30-year moratorium on uranium mining would be “the most important decision ever made by the General Assembly.”
Halifax Town Council joined with members of the Keep the Ban coalition to host the two-hour symposium, with speakers urging the general public to get involved in keeping the moratorium, citing issues of public health, agriculture, tourism and general quality of life.
Virginia Uranium Inc. has proposed a uranium mining and milling operation at the Coles Hill deposit near Sheva in Pittsylvania County, and the Virginia General Assembly is set to debate lifting the moratorium in its upcoming session.
At the heart of opponents’ concerns are the on-site storage of “tailings,” the remnants of uranium mining, which can be washed downstream in the event of a mill tailing confinement cell failure due to direct impact on mining facilities by a catastrophic storm event, according to a study for the Banister River Watershed.
The Banister River, part of the Roanoke River Basin, flows through the Town of Halifax, approximately 20 miles downriver from the Coles Hill site.
Conversion and enrichment of uranium ore will be done out of state and sold on the international market with the waste stored in-state, an extremely risky proposition considering Virginia’s weather extremes, indicated Mary Rafferty, grassroots organizing manager of the Virginia Sierra Club.
The benefits of a uranium mine at Coles Hill are far outweighed by the potential hazards, all the speakers agreed.
Radon, a radioactive component of the tailings, can travel long distances if released, and radon exposure in individual homes causes 20,000 lung cancer deaths annually, Lester added.
The United States currently has eight operating uranium mines that employ approximately 400 persons, but the government currently has more uranium than it needs, said Lester in questioning the need for the urgency in mining at Coles Hill.
“We risk losing any edge we have of bringing in new industry,” explained Lester.
“A cloud will also be over our area,” added Lester, citing uranium mining as an unreasonable risk due to lack of experience of those involved with the project in Virginia.
Read more:
http://www.gazettevirginian.com/index.php/news/34-news/4200-symposium-rallies-mining-moratorium-support-
