(VA) A Big Uranium Deposit, and a Big Debate on Mining It

[phantom power]

CHATHAM, Va. — ... Today, enormous uranium deposits below the estate’s rolling hills and pastures have set off a bitter fight over mining in this community 30 miles north of the North Carolina border.

The battle lines over Coles Hill were first drawn three decades ago, but now a long-awaited report from the National Academy of Sciences on the safety of uranium mining is expected to rekindle that debate. Its release in early December will mark the start of a crucial new stage in Virginia’s debate over whether to end the state’s 1982 moratorium on mining uranium, which is used as reactor fuel.

The moratorium remained in place after interest in the deposit waned. A separate report this week from a consulting company retained by the state found that a mine could support more than 1,000 jobs and have a net economic impact of about $135 million in economic benefits annually. But the study also warned that a mine could bring a stigma. And environmentalists worry about possible contamination of the state’s water supply.

The deposit — which could yield an estimated 119 million pounds of so-called yellowcake — has been described by experts as the nation’s richest untapped source of uranium oxide. If the mine goes forward in Chatham, it will be the only uranium mine in the eastern United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/business/energy-environment/coles-hill-uranium-mine-proposal-divides-virginia-residents.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1322856274-nuJAlKRE42oQPw4fJnKKxw