Va Beach, Lynchburg have "Dogs" in the Uranium Fight

(From the Danville Register and Bee 10/12/2007)

HALIFAX - The governments of Lynchburg and VirginiaBeach may find themselves stakeholders in the latestdevelopment regarding uranium enrichment inPittsylvania County.
Walter Coles, of Chatham, told a meeting of more thantwo dozen concerned residents at St. John's EpiscopalChurch that negotiations for a possible uraniumenrichment plant in Lynchburg are "under way even aswe speak."
Coles said Lynchburg, which already has facilities that already do some limited uranium enrichment, maysoon be the site of a uranium plant.
He said the French company, AREVA, was currentlytalking with Virginia officials about a location forthe uranium enrichment plant, of which Lynchburg wastop on the list. "AREVA has visited Virginia and they're interested inbuilding an enrichment plant, and it would be thesecond one in the United States, and it'd cost $2(billion) to $3 billion," Coles said.
He elaborated some on the plant and the need for it,and said that Campbell and Bedford counties also areamong the areas being considered for a uranium plant. Coles said he had spoken with interested parties inVirginia Beach when asked whether or not parties onthe Eastern Shore area considered themselves stakeholders.
However, Virginia Beach, which gets one-third of itsdrinking water from Lake Gaston and other bodies ofwater that are fed from the same watershed wherepotential uranium leaching could occur, could beaffected by uranium mining in Pittsylvania County ifsafety measures don't measure up.