Radioactive debate

By 2015 Virginia could become a major part of a renaissance in alternatives to carbon fuels-or not.

Virginia Uranium, Inc. is proposing to develop a uranium mine in Pittsylvania County near Danville on the state's southern border. The Coles Hill project could yield enough ore to add 2 million pounds of processed "yellowcake" uranium annually to the 4.2 million pounds produced domestically for nuclear power plants.

However, safety concerns could trump efforts to reduce American dependence on foreign energy supplies. The National Academy of Sciences held hearings in Danville in December and in Richmond last week, with a major report due to the Uranium Mining Subcommitte of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission by December.

A 1982 state law bans uranium mining. Environmental groups including the Dan River Basin Association, the Virginia Conservation Network, and the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, along with some residents, have opposed tapping the deposit because they worry that the mining and milling will foul the air, rivers, streams and reservoirs with radioactive tailings scattered by torrential rains or hurricanes. That could contaminate with radioactivity the water sources for the nearly 2 million residents of the Hampton Roads area.

"The threat to downstream communities like Virginia Beach is real," said Cale Jaffe, staff attorney for the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). "We expect our elected officials to take sufficient time to weigh the evidence about these threats before taking any action."

Uranium mining elsewhere in the U.S. has taken place in drier, western climates.

Virginia Uranium suggests that safety is not a problem. Spokesman Patrick Wales said the company has "never been dismissive" of past safety issues with extracting the heavy metal. However, mining technology and regulatory requirements around the world have improved to the point that the horror stories of the 50s out west are "not possible today." For example, he said, using tailings to make cinder blocks is a toxic practice now long abandoned.

Wales said the mine would generate 330 jobs paying an average of $65,000 per year in an area where $30,000 is the norm. Current estimates put the uranium reserves at 119 million pounds, enough to generate 2 million pounds per year for 35 years. Presently U.S. nuclear reactors use over 35 million pounds of yellowcake per year and 17 new plants are in the pipeline.

Virginia Uranium estimates the value of the ore at $8-$10 billion. For the Coles Hill project to be viable, prices must maintain or increase from current levels. The Financial Times reported this week that uranium prices "will jump to a record high as surging demand from China stimulates a decade-long bull market." Analysts suggest demand for nuclear fuel will exceed supply over the next decade.

Currently Canada supplies over 40% of U.S. nuclear fuel needs while Russia provides about a third. The Russian component comes from the Megatons to Megawatts Program, an international partnership to recycle Soviet-era nuclear weapons into fuel. That program ends in 2013 and power plants will need to find other sources.

Wales argues that the country's energy needs will suffer at the hands of the mine's opponents who "regardless of what the science says, regardless of what the economics say - will not change their minds."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.