Posted on 07/26/2008 5:33:28 AM PDT by kellynla
Amid the rolling hills and verdant pastures of south central Virginia an unlikely new front in the battle over nuclear energy is opening up. How it is decided will tell us a lot about whether this country is willing to get serious about addressing its energy needs.
In Pittsylvania County, just north of the North Carolina border, the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States -- and the seventh largest in the world, according to industry monitor UX Consulting -- sits on land owned by neighbors Henry Bowen and Walter Coles. Large uranium deposits close to the surface are virtually unknown in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. And that may be the problem.
Virginia is one of just four states that ban uranium mining. The ban was put in place in 1984, to calm fears that had been sparked by the partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island outside of Harrisburg, Pa. in 1979.
Messrs. Bowen and Coles, who last year formed a company called Virginia Uranium, are asking the state to determine whether mining uranium really is a hazard and, if not, to lift the ban. But they've run into a brick wall of environmental activists who raise the specter of nuclear contamination and who are determined to prevent scientific studies of the issue.
The Piedmont Environmental Council is one of the leading opponents. It warns of the "enormous quantities of radioactive waste" produced by uranium mining.
Jack Dunavant, head of the Southside Concerned Citizens in nearby Halifax County, is another outspoken critic. He paints a picture of environmental apocalypse. "There will be a dead zone within a 30 mile radius of the mine," he says with a courtly drawl. "Nothing will grow. Animals will die.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Forty years ago they were busting down mountains in Wyoming and Colorado to get to new uranium ore sources, and more recently causing all kinds of international tensions getting the “yellowcake” out of Africa, and here in the farmlands of southern Virginia, this relatively easily accessible vein was just sitting there.
No harder to get to than limestone from a quarry.
Aren’t we worried about terrorists getting their hands on it?
The histrionics have already gone nuclear. Why not? It works.
Fears over using nuclear energy are mostly irrational and being used by others with their own agenda. The technology and knowledge is available to build and operate nuclear plants with no more risk than operating a coal plant. The U.S. needs to develop every energy resource it has to become independent of outside influence.
It would take a lot of refining and enriching to get Uranium ore into anything usable for a weapon. Terrorists are not that industrious.
What this does represent is the enviromarxists denying cheap, safe power to the “masses” the Marxists supposedly care for.
“there will be a dead zone within a thirty-mile radius of the mine, nothing will grow, animals will die...”
loaded with leftist lies or the truth?
(have to research it.)
But, but, but, what about the South Central Virginia Spotted Snot Flea?
Save the South Central Virginia Spotted Snot Flea.
It’s more important than electricity.
Research away. Look at other U mining sites, no dead zones. Heck , lets go extreme, look at the Chernobyl site. Nope, no dead zone there either, lots of plants and animals even after all these years. Not that I would go there to live, mind you, just that life endures.
Ah, uranium is radioactive, it's already in the ground. How will taking uranium out of the ground create "enormous quantities of radioactive waste". Seems to me, it'll reduce radioactivity in the ground.
We need to revive the word "reactionary", someone who opposes every new activity. It's the liberals, leftists and environomentals, who are the reactionaries of today.
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
As a bonus, we will starve the funding of both the expansion of islam, and its most effective tool, mindless terrorism.
As an added bonus, we will get nutcase Chavez deposed, and probably hanged by his own people.
(Let them eat oil?)
I wish these nutcases would be more thorough in their apocalyptic hysteria. How exactly will this happen? Why is it not happening now?
I have run across these seriously disturbed people before, in harmless, local venues. Why is this nut case getting national attention?
Don't get me started on irradiated food.
We could be saving tens of thousands annually --- fact, but we don't because perhaps there might be "godzillas" created if we eat irradiated food.
Give me a royal break!
My uranium mines are in Canada and Kazakhstan. Those countries apparently like the idea of developing natural resources.
Reactionary is precisely correct forthe anti-nuke folk.
In the very long ago days they’d have been against fire.
Lotso people died from poorly cntrolled fire.
You could even go a step further...Luddites.
Feet planted firmly in the way of progress.
The irony is that Nuclear and offshore drilling are probably two of the best options for the environment.
btt
I have worked for a Uranium company and am somewhat familiar with the industry.
The grade in the Virginia deposit is less than .1% uranium oxide. This is the normal low-grade resource found around the planet.
In the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, the grades run to 20%+ - now that’s dangerously high!
The opposition to this development is mere NIMBYism.
As a kid in the late 60’s, my parents sent me to Camp Pitt, a Christian Church camp in that area. It’s since been relocated and the original site is a uranuium mine. Back then they told us it was the power of the Lord that made the old swimmin’ hole glow at night....
BTW, do you have an opinion of the co-generating nuclear power plants that not only generate electricity but also desalinate water. I think it would be an excellent idea.
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