Uranium Subcommittee Votes to Allow Uranium Mining Study
At a May 21 meeting in Richmond, the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy subcommittee voted to proceed with a study of the safety of uranium mining in Virginia. You can read more details on their decision in the news article below:
Va. panel votes to proceed with uranium mining study
By Rex Springston
Published: May 21, 2009
The Richmond Times Dispatch
A legislative panel voted this afternoon to go forward with a study of the safety of uranium mining in Virginia.
The study arises from a proposal by Virginia Uranium Inc. to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County in south-central Virginia.
The panel, a subcommittee of the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy, met in the General Assembly Building to fine tune the issues to be studied.
Several mining opponents, worried about possible air and water pollution, asked the panel to vote against the study, hoping that would kill the mining proposal.
But state Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, a member of the subcommittee, said approval of the study did not mean approval of mining in Pittsylvania.
Legislators simply need the study to get information that would help them make a decision, Watkins said.
Virginia has banned uranium mining since 1982.
The study will be conducted by the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, a respected institute that provides scientific advice to government agencies.
The study could cost $1.5 million and last 18 months to two years.
PEC filed the following document with each member of the Virginia Coal & Energy Commission:
November 19, 2008 Letter to the VA Coal & Energy Commission from Todd Benson, PEC
The following letter was filed by Dr. Doug Brugge of Tufts University:
November 25, 2008 Letter to Delegate Ware & VA Coal & Energy Commssion from Doug Brugge, PhD, MS, Associate Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine & Co-editor, The Navajo People and Uranium Mining (UNM Press, 2006)
The following letter was filed by Nick Evans, PhD of Virginia Groundwater LLC:
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