VA Uranium Mine = 1 Year of Oil Use ONLY

(From the Letters to the Editor, Roanoke Times 01/13/2008)

Uranium offers false promise

I am writing in response to Walter Coles' Jan. 6 commentary ("Uranium mining: Can it be done safely?") regarding proposed mining plans by Virginia Uranium Inc. in Pittsylvania County.
Coles states that the size of the uranium deposit is estimated as the equivalent of 7.4 billion barrels of oil, a big step toward U.S. energy independence.

U.S. daily oil consumption in 2006 was more than 20 million barrels per day (U.S. Energy Information Administration). Using this number, the Pittsylvania County uranium deposit would yield the equivalent of 357 days of U.S. total energy needs.

One year. That's all. Of course, cars don't run on uranium.

Maybe many like projects together can make some dent in the quantity of imported energy we require. If not, the risks of extraction, which are never fully known until after the process has started, well exceed the energy produced.

The Virginia Uranium project distracts us with what looks like a large energy supply from two simple, effective and readily available energy solutions: efficiency and conservation.

Yes, we will need energy until our alternative solutions can "kick it up a notch." Efficiency and conservation promise this energy better and faster than risky mining.

JEFF SMITH

LYNCHBURG