Sign outside a uranium mine and mill in Church Rock, New Mexico. | EPA | Wikimedia Commons
Not everyone has given up . . .
Note from Dan: The issue of uranium mining in Virginia fizzled to a close in the recently concluded General Assembly session, after the legislature wisely refused to lift a moratorium it enacted decades ago. But some stealth efforts remain underway to set up the commonwealth for uranium mining down the road. The letter below from two state lawmakers for Gov. Bob McDonnell sends that message loudly and clearly.
February 22, 2013
The Honorable Robert F. McDonnell
Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
We write to support the suggestion that you direct the responsible executive branch agencies to promulgate regulations addressing the potential mining of uranium in Virginia pursuant to the Administrative Process Act (APA).
We supported legislation this session to life the current moratorium on uranium mining, while others opposed or took no position on it. Regardless of one’s view on the ultimate question of whether the moratorium should be lifted, it is abundantly clear that future legislative deliberations on the issue–in the various committees we chair and in the Legislature as a whole–will be aided by knowing what substantive and procedural safeguards the regulations will contain.
We respectfully disagree with the suggestion from some interested quarters that promulgating regulations would constitute an end-around the legislative process. Indeed, the opposite is true. Because of the statutory moratorium, no mining can proceed unless and until the general assembly authorizes a permitting program in lieu of the moratorium. In deciding whether to authorize such a program, the General Assembly plainly would benefit from knowing how the permitting process will be structured and what requirements and safeguards will be embodied in the regulatory standards if the moratorium is lifted.
The Attorney General’s office has indicated that the moratorium precludes implementation, but not promulgation, of regulations prior to legislative action. Your inter-agency working group recently reported that the relevant agencies have the resources and expertise necessary to draft the appropriate regulations. Only is those agencies proceed to do so will future legislatures understand the regulatory program when they vote on the moratorium.
And only of the work is done pursuant to the APA, with its statutory guarantees of transparency and public input, is there likely to be public confidence in the final product.
One does not have to be a supporter of uranium mining to see the “Catch-22″ that now impedes informed legislative deliberation on this important issue. On the one hand, we hear that no regulations should be promulgated until the moratorium is lifted. On the other hand, we are told it is premature to vote on lifting the moratorium because there are too many unanswered questions, and, specifically, a lack of understanding about what the regulation would contain.
Whatever one’s view on uranium mining, the Governor and General Assembly have a responsibility as stewards of our resources to reach the merits of this issue and make the best decision possible, not get hung up in circular arguments that prevent informed decision-making.
As chairs of the two potential committee of jurisdiction on this issue, we encourage your Administration’s assistance as described herein. As previously conveyed, Senate Leaders Norment and Saslaw concur in this course of action.
Thank you for your consideration of the request.
Sincerely,
Sen. John C. Watkins, R-Midlothian
Del. Terry G. Kilgore, R-Gate City
Comments from blog:
Dan Casey |
Freeda Cathcart, a Democratic candidate for the House of Delegates from Roanoke, released the following statement today:
“When Gov. McDonnell considers Sen. Watkins and Del. Kilgore’s request to develop uranium mining regulations, he should consider the following:
- Virginia spent close to $2 million on state sponsored Working Groups to discuss uranium mining last year. The estimated cost to develop uranium mining regulations exceeds $4 million for the first year and it is expected to take five years to fully develop them. Virginia can’t afford to waste money on a private industry that isn’t economically viable when Virginia isn’t fully funding much needed teacher’s raises and cutting hours of community college’s adjunct professors.
- VUI claims that the Coles Hill deposit is “worth an estimated $7 billion” are not based on the current market value of uranium. Recently the price of uranium dropped to $42 a pound. An analysis of the global market reveals a bleak future for the uranium commodity. The uranium ore at Coles Hill is considered a low-grade ore that is not worth mining unless the market price is higher than the cost of extracting and processing it. Estimates vary that the start-up cost of mining and milling the ore at Coles Hill would be between $60-80 a pound. The Chmura report said that $45 a pound might be the breakeven point. Therefore the current value of the Coles Hill deposit is worthless based on today’s market price.
- The parent company of VUI, Virginia Energy Resources Inc. of Vancouver Canada is in fiscal distress. It had an operating loss of $5,354,146 and has an accumulated deficit of $17,109,894 according to Canada’s System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval for the period ended September 30, 2012. Recent financial restructuring using bridge loans does not address that their major holding, Coles Hill, is essentially worthless.
- The world’s demand for uranium is expected to decrease which would make the price of uranium per pound drop even more. Uranium mining is not economically feasible in Virginia.
- Virginia needs to spend tax payer money wisely by investing in education for the well being and prosperity of our state. We can’t afford to be taken advantage of by a predatory industry.”
Gov. Bob, in this pathetic AP post, “McDonnell: ‘not thinking’ of Va. uranium mining” may not be thinking of the issue now, but, most assuredly, he will. http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/news/pittsylvania_county/article_5ae66492-87e8-11e2-af65-001a4bcf6878.html
Do read the comments at the end of the post.
Reading the above letter, it’s clear to me that Watkins and Kilgore are pushing the governor and his “inter-agency working group,” the Uranium Working Group (wonder why they didn’t call it this), to write the mining regulations so the legislature will be “better informed” when it comes time to vote on whether to lift the moratorium.
It all goes back to this little legislative ruling: http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?000+cod+45.1-283
§ 45.1-283. Uranium mining permit applications; when accepted; uranium mining deemed to have significant effect on surface.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, permit applications for uranium mining shall not be accepted by any agency of the Commonwealth prior to July 1, 1984, and until a program for permitting uranium mining is established by statute. For the purpose of construing § 45.1-180 (a), uranium mining shall be deemed to have a significant effect on the surface.
(1982, c. 269; 1983, c. 3.)
If this section of the above Code of Virginia (Chapter 21) is credible, and I believe it is, then the pro-mining factions only need the state to create a “program”/mining regulations to make the current moratorium go away and for mining to begin.
Some legislators are saying that the G.A. would still have to vote on whether to lift the moratorium, but, even if true, the writing up of mining regulations gets Watkins & Co. one step closer to their goal– uranium mining and milling in Virginia.
I guess what galls me the most is that these two (plus Norment and Saslaw) will do anything to go against the will of the people.
Per the letter, “the Governor and General Assembly have a responsibility as stewards of our resources to reach the merits of this issue and make the best decision possible…”
Whatever happened to honoring the will of the people? What happened to the voices of all the people across this state and those in N.C.– those who are rightfully concerned over drinking water contamination and negative impacts to their health? Did their concerns, which pushed Watkins to withdraw his proposed bill during the last legislative session, mean nothing?
Obviously, the people of Virginia and N.C. won that round. Want to learn more about this issue? Go to the Keep the Ban website: http://keeptheban.org/?page_id=9 ( http://keeptheban.org/ ) From this informative site: The Keep the Ban Coalition is a group of local and state organizations working to maintain the existing ban on uranium mining in Virginia. More than 18,000 citizens have stated their support for the ban to the General Assembly, and over 100 government entities and nonprofit groups (that are not part of the Coalition) have expressed deep concerns about lifting Virginia’s 30-year ban on uranium mining.
Despicably, Watkins & Co. don’t care what the people have to say and are using this end-around approach to get what they want. I truly think they should be banished from the legislature.
But it’s not that easy is it?
P.S. Governor Bob wants to see uranium mining and milling in Virginia, too. If he pursues using the APA to have regulations written, I believe he will suffer when he makes his bid for higher office– whenever that occurs.
He should realize you don’t go against the will of the people you were elected to serve without some negative repercussions. In the back of his mind, he has to know this is true.
Do read the comments at the end of the post.
Reading the above letter, it’s clear to me that Watkins and Kilgore are pushing the governor and his “inter-agency working group,” the Uranium Working Group (wonder why they didn’t call it this), to write the mining regulations so the legislature will be “better informed” when it comes time to vote on whether to lift the moratorium.
It all goes back to this little legislative ruling: http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?000+cod+45.1-283
§ 45.1-283. Uranium mining permit applications; when accepted; uranium mining deemed to have significant effect on surface.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, permit applications for uranium mining shall not be accepted by any agency of the Commonwealth prior to July 1, 1984, and until a program for permitting uranium mining is established by statute. For the purpose of construing § 45.1-180 (a), uranium mining shall be deemed to have a significant effect on the surface.
(1982, c. 269; 1983, c. 3.)
If this section of the above Code of Virginia (Chapter 21) is credible, and I believe it is, then the pro-mining factions only need the state to create a “program”/mining regulations to make the current moratorium go away and for mining to begin.
Some legislators are saying that the G.A. would still have to vote on whether to lift the moratorium, but, even if true, the writing up of mining regulations gets Watkins & Co. one step closer to their goal– uranium mining and milling in Virginia.
I guess what galls me the most is that these two (plus Norment and Saslaw) will do anything to go against the will of the people.
Per the letter, “the Governor and General Assembly have a responsibility as stewards of our resources to reach the merits of this issue and make the best decision possible…”
Whatever happened to honoring the will of the people? What happened to the voices of all the people across this state and those in N.C.– those who are rightfully concerned over drinking water contamination and negative impacts to their health? Did their concerns, which pushed Watkins to withdraw his proposed bill during the last legislative session, mean nothing?
Obviously, the people of Virginia and N.C. won that round. Want to learn more about this issue? Go to the Keep the Ban website: http://keeptheban.org/?page_id=9 ( http://keeptheban.org/ ) From this informative site: The Keep the Ban Coalition is a group of local and state organizations working to maintain the existing ban on uranium mining in Virginia. More than 18,000 citizens have stated their support for the ban to the General Assembly, and over 100 government entities and nonprofit groups (that are not part of the Coalition) have expressed deep concerns about lifting Virginia’s 30-year ban on uranium mining.
Despicably, Watkins & Co. don’t care what the people have to say and are using this end-around approach to get what they want. I truly think they should be banished from the legislature.
But it’s not that easy is it?
P.S. Governor Bob wants to see uranium mining and milling in Virginia, too. If he pursues using the APA to have regulations written, I believe he will suffer when he makes his bid for higher office– whenever that occurs.
He should realize you don’t go against the will of the people you were elected to serve without some negative repercussions. In the back of his mind, he has to know this is true.
Virginia Tech's ties to uranium cash raise questions
With the nation’s largest known undeveloped uranium deposit 100 miles from campus, it’s hard to blame Virginia Tech professors interested in energy research for beating a path to Pittsylvania County, home to an estimated 119 million pounds of the radioactive ore.
But Tech officials have opened themselves up to criticism by failing to fully explain the university’s complex relationship, particularly its financial connections, with Virginia Uranium Inc., the company seeking permission to mine the site.
The General Assembly preserved a mining moratorium this winter, and Gov. Bob McDonnell has been mum about requests that he develop regulations over legislators’ objections. But Virginia Uranium hasn’t given up. Its ties to Tech are key to its efforts to gain public and political support.
Tech’s most visible role in the debate was as facilitator for a National Academy of Sciences study examining the environmental and public health effects of mining in the state. Virginia Uranium paid $1.7 million for the research, but the NAS required the money to be handled by Tech to avoid conflicts. Tech retained $300,000 for its work on the study.
Less known is that Virginia Uranium has funded multiple research projects overseen by Tech professors. In total, the university has directly received just more than $1.25 million from the company in the past five years, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The money paid for groundwater studies, soil evaluations, surveys of insects and stream life and research on the potential impact of a radioactive waste spill in a major flood.
Michael Karmis, director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Tech and the point man for the NAS study, said those dollars don’t mean that the university is an advocate for uranium mining.
“One has to separate between personal opinions and Virginia Tech opinions,” he said in an interview last week. “Tech has never officially had an opinion. Here you will find folks in favor and you find folks against.”
Cale Jaffe, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center and an opponent of the proposed Virginia mine, said he doesn’t view Tech as an advocate, and he praised Karmis’ even-handed oversight of the NAS study. But he said there is less transparency about the role of other professors.
The most outspoken academic on uranium mining has been Robert Bodnar, a distinguished professor of geosciences who specializes in energy and minerals research. Projects he oversees have attracted nearly $740,000 in Virginia Uranium funding. The resulting theses and dissertations identify funding sources, but Bodnar has been less conscientious about explaining his connection to the company as he became more involved in the political debate over the proposed mine.
http://roanoke.com/opinion/nuckols/1754780-12/virginia-techs-ties-to-uranium-cash-raise-questions.html
Pro-Nukers Spread Death and Pestilence. Always.
[Editors Note...Something you might have missed...I did: ...May 17th, 2012... Japanese officials are currently engaging in talks with Russian diplomats about where tens of millions of Japanese refugees might relocate in the very-likely event that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility’s Reactor 4 completely collapses. According to a recent report by EUTimes.net, Japanese authorities have indicated that as many as 40 million Japanese people are in “extreme danger” of radiation poisoning, and many eastern cities, including Tokyo, may have to be evacuated in the next few weeks or months to avoid extreme radiation poisoning... Jim W. Dean]
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/03/08/i-spit-on-your-grave/
Mar 9, 2013
Thyroid abnormalities have now been confirmed among tens of thousands of children downwind from Fukushima. They are the first clear sign of an unfolding radioactive tragedy that demands this industry be buried forever.
Two years after Fukushima exploded, three still-smoldering reactors remind us that the nuclear power industry repeatedly told the world this could never happen.
And 72 years after the nuclear weapons industry began creating them, untold quantities of deadly wastes still leak at Hanford and at commercial reactor sites around the world, with no solution in sight.
Radiation can be slow to cause cancer, taking decades to kill.
But children can suffer quickly. Their cells grow faster than adults'. Their smaller bodies are more vulnerable. With the embryo and fetus, there can never be a "safe" dose of radiation. NO dose of radiation is too small to have a human impact.
Last month the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey acknowledged a horrifying plague of thyroid abnormalities, thus far afflicting more than forty percent of the children studied.
The survey sample was 94,975. So some 38,000 children are already cursed with likely health problems...that we know of.
A thyroid abnormality can severely impact a wide range of developmental realities, including physical and mental growth. Cancer is a likely outcome.
And the government has revealed that three cases of thyroid cancer have already been diagnosed in the area. All have been subjected to surgery.
Fukushima's airborne fallout came to our west coast within a week of the catastrophe. It's a virtual certainty American children are being affected. As health researcher Joe Mangano puts it: "Reports of rising numbers of West Coast infants with under-active thyroid glands after Fukushima suggest that Americans may have been harmed by Fukushima fallout. Studies, especially of the youngest, must proceed immediately."
Untold billions of gallons of unmonitored liquid poisons have poured into the Pacific. Contaminated trash has carried across the ocean (yet the US has ceased monitoring wild-caught Pacific fish for radiation).
Worldwide, atomic energy is in rapid decline for obvious economic reasons. In Germany and elsewhere, Solartopian technologies---wind, solar, bio-fuels, efficiency---are outstripping nukes and fossil fuels in price, speed to install, job creation, environmental impact, reliability and safety.
No one has yet measured the global warming impacts of the massive explosions and heat releases at Fukushima (or at Chernobyl, where the human death toll has been estimated in excess of a million).
The nuclear fuel cycle---from mining to milling to enrichment to transportation to waste management---creates substantial greenhouse gases. The reactors themselves convert ore to gargantuan quantities of heat that warm the planet directly, wrecking our weather patterns in ways that have never been fully assessed.
Even in the shadow of Fukushima, the industry peddles a "new generation" of magical reactors to somehow avoid all previous disasters. Though they don't yet exist, they will be "too cheap to meter," will "never explode" and will generate "radiation that is good for you."
But atomic energy is human history's most expensive technological failure, defined by what seems to be a terminal reverse learning curve. After more than a half-century to get it right, the industry has most recently poked holes in the head of a reactor in Florida, and installed $700 million steam generators it knew to be faulty in two more in California. It now wants to open San Onofre Unit Two at a 70% level, essentially to see what happens. Some 8 million people live within a 50-mile radius.
