Thursday, March 11, 2010
10am-4pm
Richmond Center Stage for the Performing Arts
7th and Grace St., Richmond, VA
Reception to follow for participants and invited guests

View event flyer

World Experts On Health And Socio-Economic Impacts Of Uranium Mining To Speak At Symposium In Richmond

Join Friends of the Earth for a Uranium Mining in Virginia Symposium in Richmond, VA. The goals of the symposium are to examine the health and socio-economic impacts of proposed uranium mining in Virginia. The conference will provide participants with information about experiences with uranium mining all over the world. Specific attention will be given to the water quality and quantity impacts of uranium mining, alternatives to uranium mining, health consequences of uranium mining to local populations, and new versus old techniques of uranium mining. This event is open to the public and state and local officials, the media, concerned citizens, planners, and those living in potentially impacted areas near the mining and downstream are encouraged to attend. (Note: The conference will not focus on the pros and cons of nuclear reactors and power plants).

For more information, please contact Brent Blackwelder, President emeritus, Friends of the Earth at 202-966-3451. To register, please call 804-644-0283 or visit the VCN website.

Speakers

The following world experts will be speaking at the conference and have written and spoken extensively on uranium mining and seen first-hand the impacts in the US and around the globe:

Dr. Gordon Edwards
Dr. Gordon Edwards is a founder of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) in 1975 and has been its president since 1978. Whenever there is a nuclear mishap in Canada--be it a radioactive discharge at Bruce Nuclear Power Complex or a breached tailings pond dam in northern Saskatchewan, everyone knows Dr. Gordon Edwards is the expert to seek out. Dr. Edwards has helped communities across Canada come to grips with radioactive contamination.

Dr. Edwards is also a founder of the Atomic Photographers Guild, where he published the first maps detailing Canada's nuclear infrastructure and authored educational pamphlets illustrating the environmental effects of uranium mining. Through research, articles, public presentations, and radio and television appearances, Gordon played a key role in bringing about a moratoria on uranium mining in Labrador, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

Paul Robinson
Paul Robinson is director of the Southwest Research & Information Center in New Mexico which provides technical services for communities facing mining and other resource development problems. Much of Mr. Robinson's work over four decades has focused on mines and mills affecting low-income and indigenous communities in the U.S. and around the globe.

Mr. Robinson has provided expert technical analysis for formal proceedings in the U.S., Canada and Europe, and prepared professional papers for publications of the British Columbia Chamber of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, European Commission, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, and the Western Governors' Association. The uranium mining projects he helped review in the past ten years include:

• Elliot Lake Uranium Tailings Decommissioning, Ontario, Canada
• Krasnokamensk Uranium Complex, Chita, Russia
• Crownpoint Insitu Uranium Project, New Mexico, USA
• Wismut Uranium Complex, Germany

Dr. Manuel Pino
Dr. Manuel Pino is a professor of sociology and American Indian studies at Scottsdale Community College. A Native American from the Acoma tribe in New Mexico, Pino received his BA and Masters degrees in Sociology from the University of New Mexico, where he conducted research on the impact uranium mining has on humans, wildlife and the environment and did is doctoral dissertation on the "Impact of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle on Indigenous People in the United States."

Living in close proximity to the Jackpile mine, North America's largest open pit uranium mine from 1952 until 1982, Pino had first-hand acquaintance with the environmental impacts, such as water contamination, air quality impacts, and environmental degradation to the soil and to domestic and wild animals.

Dr. Pino has widely presented his findings at forums such at the Indigenous World Uranium Summit and he works with tribes in New Mexico, Washington, South Dakota, and Arizona, that have been affected by uranium mining.

His work on cancer clusters among the Navajo, Acoma and Laguna tribes helped to gain passage of the Uranium Workers Act of 2000, designed to compensate miners for exposure to radioactive contaminants. Pino has worked for the past decade helping Native miners file claims under this law.


Dr. Douglas Brugge
Dr. Douglas M. Brugge is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is the author and co-author of numerous analyses of the health impacts of uranium mining and processing. A co-editor of The Navajo People and Uranium Mining, he testified in 2007 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation.

Dr. Brugge has a PhD in cellular and developmental biology from Harvard University and an MS in industrial hygiene from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a co-author of over 100 academic papers including:

• "The Ethical issues in uranium mining research in the Navajo Nation"
• "Geochemical controls on uranium mobilization in a waste-burdened mining district" "An epidemiological perspective on the teratogenicity of depleted uranium aerosols"
• "Development of Risk Maps to Minimize Uranium Exposures in the Navajo Churchrock Mining District"
• "The Sequoyah corporation fuels release and the Church Rock spill: unpublicized nuclear releases in American Indian communities"

Dr. Rianne Teule
Dr. Rianne Teule is Greenpeace International's expert on all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. Dr. Teule has examined areas contaminated by uranium around the world. Most recently, she prepared a report on two uranium mines in Niger, Africa, documenting the contamination of the city of Akokan. Dr. Teule's team surveyed various streets of Akokan after AREVA (the mining company) had issued assurances of an effective cleanup. The team found a number of areas with serious problems still remaining, including one location with background radiation levels 500 times above normal.

Sponsoring Organizations
Dan River Basin Association
Friends of the Earth
Piedmont Environmental Council
Sierra Club
Virginia Chapter, Southern Environmental Law Center
Virginia Conservation Network
Virginia Interfaith Power & Light