Experts urge caution over uranium mine

NORFOLK

Experts from Canada, the Netherlands and New Mexico came to Hampton Roads on Friday to deliver a warning about a proposed uranium mine 140 miles away in Pittsylvania County: Be careful, be vigilant.

The five scientists and academics urged local leaders to be concerned about the mine, which would be the first one in Virginia, given the site's proximity to wetlands and streams that eventually drain into Lake Gaston - a key drinking water supply for Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.

Toxic and radioactive contamination that can result from such mining "is never a malicious intent," said Gordon Edwards, a longtime researcher with the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. "It's really about limits of technology. We still don't know how to deal with all of these issues."

He said modern operations in Canada, a major supplier of uranium globally, have made great strides in recent years to better protect the environment and human health. But, he stressed, there are still problems.

Virginia Beach has hired its own consulting firm to study the potential risks to Lake Gaston of upstream mining, and the National Academy of Sciences is about to embark on an 18-month risk analysis for the state.

Virginia lawmakers banned uranium mining in the early 1980s. But a company based in Chatham in Pittsylvania County, Virginia Uranium Inc., hopes to overturn the moratorium and begin extracting and milling an estimated 110 million pounds of uranium ore for nuclear power.

State environmental groups brought the team of international experts to a summit Thursday in Richmond and a news conference Friday in Norfolk.

Patrick Wales, a spokesman for Virginia Uranium Inc., described the all-day event Thursday as "basically an anti-uranium pep rally."

"It seemed like a whole lot of people who'd already made up their minds," Wales said.

Asked about the potential risks to Lake Gaston and Virginia Beach drinking water, Wales said that he respected those safety concerns but that strict regulations and improving technologies would satisfy them.

Paul Robinson, research director for the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M., said one of the biggest problems he foresees is the contaminated water that will have to be pumped from the ground to get at the uranium beneath.

The water would have to be treated and then released back into the environment. Controlling mine water "has been accomplished in the past, but there also have been failures," Robinson said.

He said contaminated discharges have led to environmental problems at mines in Germany, Russia and other countries.

Virginia Beach officials have expressed concern about radioactive sediments washing their way downstream and affecting Lake Gaston, and about major storms leading to floods at the mine site.

The City Council passed a resolution in 2008 against uranium mining in Virginia "until it can be demonstrated to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that there will be no significant release of radioactive sediments downstream under any circumstances."

Virginia Uranium Inc. says its proposed operation, if allowed, would create between 300 and 500 jobs, would bring ample and needed tax revenues to the county and state, and could net billions of dollars in profits.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com