Working Together for Our Inherent Governing Authority!
Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate systematical job of reducing us to slaves." --Thomas Jefferson
Comment: Fly Rock, Blasting, environmental impact, the future of blowing up Virginia hillsides for uranium!
Orica USA Simulates Blasting Precise-Delay Timing for Process Improvement Benefits.
SOUTHPOINTE - ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, today announced that its software is being used in the mining industry to develop precise-delay timing for blasting. Orica USA, a division of the world's leading supplier of commercial explosives — Orica Limited — is studying the effects of multiple blastholes on rock fracturing and fragmentation to further its ability to provide advanced Blast-Based Services™ to industry. The effort is shedding light on the complex physics set in motion in the rock blasting process, and the results will be used to improve overall processes — including blast control along with time and cost savings.
Like other industries, mining markets are demanding low-cost products and processes that result in optimal performance and minimal environmental impact. “Because it is more economical to move rock with explosives, the mining industry prefers to move as much through blasting and as little through loading and trucking as possible,” said Dale Preece of the Global Technology Group at Orica USA. “Orica is about industry solutions, about developing integrated approaches to blasting that, less than a decade ago, would have been inconceivable. Our overarching goal is to harvest more materials from fewer well-planned blasts. What we’re currently simulating with explicit dynamics software from ANSYS is precise-delay timing and how resulting forces due to the effects of shock waves, stress waves and the effect of velocity gradients can be leveraged to produce optimal fragmentation.” These capabilities are a critical component of Orica’s Blast Based Services, which is changing the market approach to explosives by allowing the industry to purchase mine-specific solutions tailored for the client’s unique operational and commercial challenges.
Whether applied to mining coal, gold, copper, uranium, nickel or bauxite, precision-delay timing involves multiple blasts that are specifically sited and sequenced. The wrong placement/timing combination can result in muck piles that are difficult for a front loader to efficiently excavate, excessive machine wear, environmentally adverse effects, or an unsafe explosion creating excessive air-blast levels and flyrock.
A blasthole produces stress waves. Multiple blastholes cause these to collide and interact — thereby magnifying, diminishing or canceling out their effects. The physics involved are complex and dependent on the time between detonations. For example, colliding stress waves can become reinforced and reflected, producing significant damage, or stress waves can become depleted in strength due to other more powerful waves. The Orica simulation study used explicit dynamics software from ANSYS to show that blast-induced fracturing and damage lag significantly behind the initial blast’s stress wave, with the most effective delay time occurring when crack propagation and damage are maximized before a subsequent detonation occurs, a span of tens of milliseconds, depending on the rock and blast pattern. “Precise-delay timing enables detonation of adjacent blast holes with the ‘right’ delay time, not simply a guesstimate,” Preece added.
Orica has pioneered the development and implementation of new mining technology for more than a century. The company’s recent engineering simulation efforts are especially timely since rising energy prices have driven up the cost of natural gas, which when converted into ammonia is used to produce a key ingredient in explosives. Orica’s Blast Based Services seek to maximize the performance and efficiency of the blasting process.
“Mining activities remain a time- and cost-intensive business, so accurate planning is critical.
Comment: Canada will be blowing up Virginia for open pit uranium mining, just as the State of Virginia is blowing our Mountains! Virginia and Canada just want the money; with little attention to what is doing to our families, our health, our land, our air, and our water! This is pure evil! Just think about the next time you turn on your lights, a way of life is being destroy for corporate greed and our comfort with diry coal and uranium mining. Demand Virginia to go to true green power, it is possible and it is renewable!
Coal Country Premiere: Big Coal Lobby Does Not Want You to See This Powerful New Film
Jeff BiggersAuthor, The United States of Appalachia Posted: July 3, 2009 04:52 AM
As a groundbreaking clean energy counterpart to this summer's extraordinary Food, Inc. documentary on the agribusiness, the long-awaited "Coal Country" film on the cradle-to-grave process of generating our coal-fired electricity will be hitting the theatres next week with the big bang of an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosive.
And Big Coal ain't happy.
After a year-long campaign of threats and intimidation, the Big Coal lobby plans to have its Friends of Coal sycophants out in force to picket the premiere of the film on July 11, 7pm, at La Belle Theater in the South Charleston Museum in Charleston, West Virginia.
Why is Big Coal so afeared of this documentary film by native Appalachian daughters Mari-Lynn Evans and Phylis Geller, producer and director of three-part award-winning landmark PBS series, "The Appalachians"?
If anything, Coal Country goes out of its way to include the views and voices of the Big Coal lobby and its executives, engineers and miners. This, in fact, might be why Coal Country is so compelling; far from any hackneyed agenda, Coal Country simply allows the coal industry and those affected by its mountaintop removal operations and coal-fired plants to tell their personal stories. The end result is devastating. In a methodical and deliberate fashion, Coal Country brilliantly takes viewers on a rare journey through our nation's coal-fired electricity, from the extraction, processing, transport, and burning of coal.
Once you see the breathtaking footage by cameraman Jordan Freeman, and the unaffected and heart-rending portraits of coal mining families, you will never flick on your light switch again without thinking about Coal Country.
From the git-go, West Virginia governor and coal peddler Joe Manchin declares: "There is no replacement for coal. There might be 30 or 50 or 100 years from now, but there's not today."
A French engineer cheerfully proclaims, "Coal is a wonderful resource. It's too bad it's dirty."
As one coal company executive coldly states, the millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives that rip through the Appalachian mountains and poison the watersheds and air of local communities daily, "might make some people uncomfortable."
Another coal engineer playfully recalls teaching his children to refer to coal-fired plants as "cloud factories" to bring the rain, in the face of some of the highest cancer and heart disease rates in the country, and an American Lung Association study that 24,000 Americans die prematurely from coal-fired plant pollution each year.
One reclamation engineer even breaks into tears, lamenting that his dedication and work are misunderstood. He waves his hand at denuded hills, stripped of the hundreds of species of flora and fauna in one of the most diverse deciduous forests on the American continent, and lauds his planting of a small stand of sycamores. After 30 years of reclamation laws and over 1.5 million acres of clear cut and destroyed hardwood forest, he champions the novelty of his tree-planting efforts: "We're trying them out on some mountaintop removal sites and seeing how they do."
Whew. Big Coal doesn't want you to see this stunning expose because they have been allowed to let the truth slip out of their mouths.
Michael Shnayerson, the author of Coal River, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, wonderfully plays the role of an informative commentator throughout the film, delivering his facts in a no-nonsense and quiet manner. Yet, he tells an interviewer: "Nothing prepared me for the visual devastation..." of mountaintop removal.
And this is where Coal Country shines the light on one of the darkest human rights and environmental violations overseen by federal and state regulators in our times. Through a series of moving portraits of coalfield residents, the film chronicles the extraordinary and largely overlooked toll of coal mining on the lives of Appalachian residents.
In a gripping montage, Coal Country shows how those affected by mountaintop removal and coal-fired plants have emerged as the most informed and articulate spokespeople against the ravages of the out-of-state coal companies. In effect, it is the gross indifference and recklessness of Big Coal that turns former coal miners and farmers and shopkeepers into the nation's leading coal and climate change activists--and true American heroes.
One of the film's most illuminating moments takes place during a hearing in West Virginia over the Bush administration's 2002 manipulation of the stream buffer rule, which allowed mining waste to be dumped into mountain streams. While a line of residents and coal company employees take their turn at the microphone, the room silences when a young man in a halting voice steps up and quietly tells the truth:
"Both sides are scared. And we're screaming insults back and forth at each other, and I think we're losing sight of the source of our fears. West Virginia is the poorest state in the country, and southern West Virginia is the poorest part of it. And I think people are scared that they will lose their jobs and be flipping burgers. You look out and that's all you see. Mining and flipping burgers. And I argue that the coal company, that they want it that way. That they want that to be the only options. That is the only way they can get support on the way they treat their workers and treat our community."
In Rock Creek, West Virginia, Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds recounts the polarization and poisoning of the community's watersheds. She quotes Upton Sinclair: "It is hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck demands him not to understand."
In eastern Kentucky, Teri Blanton describes the devastated woodlands landscape replanted with foreign grass, "which is fine for Montana, but it's not supposed to look like that in eastern Kentucky."
Former coal miner Chuck Nelson walks viewers through the union-busting tactics of out-of-state coal companies and mountaintop removal operations, and the rarely noticed destruction of real estate values for local coalfield residences due to coal dust and environmental ruin. Mountaintop removal, ultimately, he points out, "is not so cheap for people who have to live under these sites."
In southwestern Virginia, Kathy Selvage describes how she went from too shy to speak in public, to her transformation as one of the most articulate activists and well-researched coal experts. Far from being politically motivated, it comes down to an "assault on our community and way of life." Standing in the face of a pitiful reclamation efforts, she declares, "I grieve over the lost of a mountain."
Farmer Elisa Young in Meigs County, Ohio, tours the parade of coal-fired plants along the Ohio River that have led to the highest cancer and poverty rates in the region. "I'm not a trained activist, I'm not an environmentalist. I just live in a county that is being waled on...As a farmer, I need clean air, clean soil and clean water to run a farm."
With some spectacular photography in the background during a flyover across mountaintop removal sites, Kathy Mattea, the wondrous West Virginia country music star and granddaughter of coal miners, speaks of her support of coal mining families and the region's dilemma.
Mattea nails the issue of mountaintop removal: "It's not against the law," she says, "but what if a law is unjust?"
Coal Country should be required viewing for our nation's elected officials, and the administrators at the Council on Environmental Quality, the EPA and the Department of Interior.
In fact, Coal Country needs to be screened at the White House theatre.
For more information, visit: http://www.sierraclub.org/scp/coalcountry.aspx
or the Coal Country film site: www.coalcountrythemovie.com
Info on the West Virginia premiere is here: http://thegazz.com/gblogs/wvfilm/2009/06/30/coal-country-new-film-from-mari-lynn-evans-july-11th/
A companion book volume, Coal Country: : Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining, will be release later this fall by Sierra Club Books, and edited by Shirley Stewart Burns, Mari-Lynn Evans, and Silas House.
Comment: When you read the article, just replace the coal with uranium. We will have the same problems, our water will be ruin, and the air will have small uranium matter from the blast. The lies from the local uranium company about jobs, flying the American flag it is their duty to take out the uranium. We may be forced off our land for corporate monies. We will feel the blast of the open pit uranium mining, 24 hours a day, all week long. The churches in Sheva area will be shaking from the blast and the dust will settle on everyone cars! People wake up; we will be living the same way as our families and the legal Mt. Top Removal!
Published on Monday, June 29, 2009 by CommonDreams.org MTR: Destroyer of Mountains, Streams, Wildlife, and Communities The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia. by Maria Gunnoe
The following was submitted as prepared testimony to the The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife on Thursday, June 25, 2009:
My name is Maria Gunnoe. I am 40 years old and I am a life long resident of Boone County in southern West Virginia. My family history there goes back to the 1700's. I know the areas and the people that are being impacted by mountaintop removal very well simply because this is the homeland where generations of our ancestors before me have raised their families and lived their lives. Most of these families have depended on underground coal mining to make a living but we as a culture of people have depended on these mountains to take care of our families. We are gatherers, hunters, gardeners, fishermen, active and retired miners, loving community members, we are stewards of this land and we are now organizers. We are working to protect and preserve the communities, culture and people that we love and hold dear to our hearts
Water Quality Impacts
There is a relatively new method of mining now happening in the coal fields of Appalachia called mountaintop removal coal mining. This method of mining is where the coal companies use nearly 4 million pounds of blasting material a day (in WValone) to blast the coal out of the mountains. Then everything other than the coal (including trees and topsoil) is used to create valley fills in our headwater streams. The artificial streams running off these sites are toxic with selenium.
The energy is temporary energy. You only burn coal one time. The destruction of the land, air, communities and people is permanent. There have been 500 mountains leveled for their coal and energy in the name of homeland security. These 500 mountains were surrounded by communities who depended on the mountain's resources and water for their very existence.
There have now been more than 2000 miles of streams buried by valley fills. People depended on these streams as much as any animals. The cumulative impact of the permits that are being allowed in some incidents are further depopulating and destroying communities and people. The regulatory agencies turn a blind eye to this pollution by continuing to allow the companies to buy more time to come in compliance with the existing laws. Without enforcement these laws are only words on paper.
Local communities truly do not have a voice in the process of these permits.
The DEP will set up what is called an informal conference to inform citizens of what the DEP and coal companies are planning to do and to give community members a chance to comment. These comments are recorded and we are told that they become a part of the permit record. In these hearings the citizens often beg the regulatory agencies to not allow these permits but commonly they approve every permit applied for. The people who live in these communities do not want mountaintop removal mining. Especially near their homes and communities simply because it is destroying everything they and their families before them have worked for.
In the 8 years of the Bush Administration the laws and courts were aligned to destroy any protection that we had for these beautiful and unique places and their people. The clean water act lost its meaning when the Bush Administration changed one word of this law - the definition of fill material. Another important rule, --the buffer zone rule- that protected our streams was done away with on the eve of Christmas 2008. With this rule change the Bush Administration opened us as residents up to nothing but destruction.
There are health impacts too. A study by Dr Michael Hendryx at West Virginia University has proven that there is reason to be concerned about the pollution that the people throughout the coalfields are being exposed to.
This study has not been taken seriously by our state leaders or our state regulatory agencies as a matter of fact it has been ignored. Portions of this study were based on the community of Twilight near where I live. Twilight Surface Mines surrounds the small communities of Lindytown and Twilight and the people who live there either put up with the impacts or leave.
The blasting has been horrible and the community's members concerns are not being heard.
There is near 4 million pounds of blasting material used each day in WV alone.
At one point the department of defense and Department of Environmental Protection allowed the coal company to dispose of old munitions from war {called tetryl its used as an igniter} on the mine site behind my home. It was too dangerous to use in war so they thought they would dispose of it in our community over our people's heads.
We have for many generations depended on the water from these mountains. Now this water is being polluted forever.
In the case of Big Branch Creek where I live it is now polluted with toxic level of selenium. This is also present in my well water. This was quietly done by the coal company and the regulatory agency permitted it.
The entire aquifer of where I live is now pollution spill way. The loss of timber from our hollow alone will be felt for thousands of years to come. There is no way that the reclaimed land can grow the hardwood forest that the natural land does.
This land is dead. It's impossible to grow a healthy forest on dead polluted land. Reclamation is a pretty word but on the ground it has been proven to be impossible.
Culture
My family before me settled these mountains through the forced removal of the Cherokee known as the trail of tears and most of my neighbors have a similar story.
My grand father told me the story his mother told him of the men in the family dressing as women to allow the women and children to escape this forced removal. The women and children then followed the rivers to their headwaters and settled the area where I now live.
Throughout the past 250 years our families have built these places through determination and love for the place itself.
The mountains here sustained our families by supplying us with an abundance of food and fresh clean water in our wells, springs and streams. Southern West Virginians are fortunate enough to live in the second most bio-diverse region on this planet. This is richness beyond wealth. As residents we recognize our most valuable resources as being our land, water and people not the coal that lies beneath it all. Our people were here before the coal was discovered. Why should we have to leave now in the name of coal?
Some of our current resident's ancestors were awarded their land for military service to this country.
Now this very land being destroyed and the residents don't have the rights to protect it.
Appalachians are the history of this country. We have given all to build the infrastructure that supports this American dream that we all share. We help to supply 48% of this country's energy and the cost of this is never truly calculated. I have heard coal referred to as a cheap and clean energy. This ignores the facts. The facts are that the true cost of coal fired energy has never been calculated.
We must consider the cost of coal from the cradle to the grave. We must consider the cost of mountaintop removal coal mining not only the aquatic life and the wildlife where this coal is being extracted but on the human lives of everywhere it touches.
I have to ask what about the homeland security of the folks that are being forced to sell out to the coal companies in Lindytown W.V?
The people who proudly built this community are being told that they are in the way of coal production and that they must leave their homes of many generations.
The coal company engineers strategically buy out homes and family heir owned land to depopulate communities by making life unbearable. Their air land and water are being destroyed by mountaintop removal there is no way people can continue to live here and be healthy. They are being forced to leave home places of many generations to save their lives.
This alone is personally and emotionally devastating. The boom of "Big Bertha" -- a dragline -- swings over the community of Lindytown. Blasting is frequent and terrifying for residents that are holding out not wanting to sell.
This same "clean coal" that forced an elder woman out of her home who happened to die of a heart attack while she packed her belongings for the first time in 72 years. She too was in the way of production. The people in Lindytown were only free to leave. Why is it as homeland security increases here in DC ours only gets less and less likely to even exist?
In our mountains we have many mountain cemeteries that date back to the beginning of civilization here. We are grounded like our ancestors before us.
These cemeteries are awarded no protection by our regulatory agencies or law enforcement.
We as citizens are expected to register and account for these cemeteries in order to protect them from mining activity and most of the time the coal companies won't allow us into our family cemeteries to do this work. They stop us from visiting our dead by locking us out of our ancestral land in these mountains. I know of many grave yards that were in our mountains that no longer exist. The areas where they were are now gone.
The people here belong no where but here. These folks will thrive in their own environment but taken away from here they will perish as they are not where they belong. The culture of people in West Virginia is a culture of survivalist not environmentalist. We have survived here throughout times of extreme poverty during the rise and fall of the coal markets. We have always had the land to sustain our lives. Now the very reason for our existence as a culture of mountain people is being annihilated for its coal.
Jobs
Boone County falls second in poverty only to McDowell County, WV another leading coal producing county.
This is still the most impoverished area in the US today. If mountaintop removal was about jobs and prosperity where is it? In the 1960's we had 125,000 direct coal mining jobs in the coal industry in WV, but now we have less than 12,000. Ask yourselves is this really about jobs or profit and exploitation? These jobs are temporary jobs at best. The operation behind my home started in 2000. It is now closed down.
These good paying jobs only lasted long enough for the employees to get in debt.
I have watched as coal companies have destroyed one of the most beautiful places in this country by mountaintop removal coal mining. The people who live in these areas are often retired or active UMWA underground miners and their families. The people who work in mountaintop removal most often do not live in the environment that their jobs create. The companies are out of state coal companies and the workers are out of area workers. The companies commonly do not hire local people.
The coal companies will tell all that will listen that they are doing this for future economic development of an impoverished region.
They will say that we don't have any flat land for development. They will tell you that we need this flat land and that our mountains are useless land in their natural state. I have even heard them say that the mountains are in the way of development. There will be no future here for anyone with mountaintop removal. I cannot believe that we as a nation are depending on continuing to blow up mountains to supply energy in this country when the energy we need in this country rises with the sun everyday and blows in each churn of the wind. The ridges of southern WV are wind viable ridges until they are blown up. We cannot continue to allow this to be called clean coal.
Stop Mountaintop Mining
In my own mind I know that mountaintop removal coal mining will stop.
According to USGS we are running out of mineable coal and we are quickly running out of mountains in Southern, WV.
Global warming is very real. We are all just pawns on this chess board called earth. I hope that we can stop mountaintop removal and coals global attack soon enough to preserve some of what is left of one of the most beautiful and ecologically diverse places in this country. The rolling hills of Appalachia are becoming the flat plateaus of the West as I speak.
We have the opportunity to stop the annihilation of mountains and people by mountaintop removal and to change the history of energy in this country. We are at a cross roads.
We must put all special interest aside and follow what we know to be best for all of our future generations. Stop the attack on Appalachia's water supply and the people it sustains.
Thank you again to Senator Cardin and Senator Alexander for standing up for what any fellow human knows to be the right thing.
I would like to extend my tremendous appreciation to Senator Cardin and Senator Alexander for introducing Senate Bill 696 the Appalachian Restoration Act. This Bill if passed could turn back some of the Bush administration changes that is currently allowing coal companies to destroy valuable headwater streams and all that is connected to them. The residents I work with in the Boone County coal fields send their support for this bill as it is in some cases the only hope we have of remaining in our ancestral homes and in our ancestral homelands.
I leave you with photos and a recent article about flooding in the coalfields caused by run off from flattened mountains.
This is what inspired me to get involved in stopping mountaintop removal. There are other organizers just like me being created everyday by this industry. We have no choice but to oppose the practice of filling headwater streams, we live here!
Maria Gunnoe is an organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition [1], based in Huntington, W.Va.
FACT: Uranium mining & milling produces tailings and dust that contain the same deadly heavy metals and arsenic as coal ash. Coles Hill is on the Banister River, just like the coal ash spill in Kentucky polluted their river. The plan in Virginia is to develop "regulations" to keep us "safe" from the uranium industry just like they (politicians and the corporations that are motivated solely by profit) have kept the people "safe" from the coal plant industry. When you watch this film, every time you hear COLE ASH, think URANIUM TAILINGS and DUST! Watch CBS News Videos Online
An Editorial by Gregg Vickrey, Chairman, The Alliance September 6, 2009, concerning the:
U.S. Uranium and Nuclear Power Outlook: 2008 - 2030 Presented to:National Research Council of the National Academies Presented by:Tom PoolChairman, International Nuclear November 18, 2008
Although I could point out all of the obvious errors in this completely bias report BY THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY TO THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL of the NATIONAL ACADEMIES (NAS?), I will only address the section entitled: "Opposition"
This one section of the report serves to prove that the pro nuke, uranium mining & milling bunch, are frightened of, no, TERRORIZED by, the rational people that oppose their for profit slaughter of human beings (including children), animals and fish, and the environment all over the world. This section is a deliberate attempt to subliminally effect the emotions of the reader. It attempts to make anybody opposed to nuke power, uranium mining and milling, seem like a group of paranoid fanatics. It is meant to gain pro-nuke, pro-uranium mining & milling followers by deliberately creating the mind set: "if I oppose this, I will be labeled and vilified. Worse, I will be considered stupid (remember the old story: "The Emperor's new clothes"?). It is marketing and public relations at it's best. In professional terms, it's called "branding". Although typical branding is done to create positive "top of mind awareness" in the mind of the consumer - in this case, the NRC of the NA (NAS?) - this marketing, PR drive is determined to create a negative impression of anyone that dares oppose the for profit corporations as represented by Tom Pool, Chairman, International Nuclear.
So, without further ado, please let me address the picture that he paints of the "opposition":
In Tom's own words: "Most opposition can be Characterized as":
– Lack of Understanding (Fear of the Unknown) This is true. Based on the problematic history of nuclear power, uranium mining and milling world wide, the current problems and issues (more are discovered every day), the lack of any new technology that significantly improves the probability of successful nuclear power generation, uranium mining and milling, and the fact that uranium mining and milling has never been done any where in the world with the climate and population density of Virginia, creating a HUGE UNKNOWN that can NEVER be addressed, except as theory - making Virginia the biggest potential experiment in nuke energy fuel production EVER in the history of the United States - we , the people that rationally oppose this boondoggle, proudly lay claim to NOT UNDERSTANDING WHY OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, IN OFFICE TO LOOK AFTER OUR WELL BEING, NOT THE PROFITS OF CORPORATIONS HELL BENT TO TAKE OVER OUR LANDS AND TRAMPLE ON OUR INALIENABLE RIGHTS, PUSH THE AGENDA OF FOR PROFIT CORPORATIONS (even foreign corporations) INSTEAD OF LOOKING OUT FOR THE PEOPLE THEY WERE ELECTED TO, AND ARE PAID TO, REPRESENT.
Yes, we are fearful that our elected officials are so beholding to for profit (even foreign) corporations that they will NEVER listen to the will of the people. They (the politicians) claim that this is "business" as usual (taking money from corporations to pay for their election campaigns). I say IT'S TIME TO CHANGE THE WAY WE DO BUSINESS!
We, the opposition, do not need to look very hard to find all of the reasons that nuke power, uranium mining and milling, should not be done! OUR POLITICIANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS NOT UP TO THEM TO DECIDE IF NUKE POWER, URANIUM MINING & MILLING SHOULD BE DONE. This decision is up to the people. Their ONLY job is to implement the will of the people. If they cannot handle this simple task, it is time for us - THE PEOPLE - to vote them out of office! We need politicians that KNOW they do not work for corporations, domestic and/or foreign! They need to understand, they work for us! Just because WE elected them to office, WE did not give them Carte' blanch to do whatever they want to do. WE also did not agree to serve THEM.
THE CORPORATIONS and THEIR PUPPETS, our elected officials, HAVE GONE OUT OF THEIR WAY TO STIFLE THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH THEM. They call us names, they emotionally and defensively challenge our facts without providing any new or better information. Our politicians hide behind questionable "studies" so that they can justify serving their corporate masters. They make stop overs and declare that a proposed, potentially lethal to millions uranium mine & mill is "far away from everything"! They (the politicians) expect you to accept this declaration as an item of fact. Never mind that a look at any map will give truth to their lies! They refuse to take a stand on the most important issue that Virginia has ever faced. There has not been an assault like this on the people's rights since the war of Northern Aggression! Our politicians have become the "bully" on the beach.
• Connection With Nuclear Weapons DUH! Uranium is processed into weapons grade material to create nuclear bombs! Depleted uranium (the spent, or used up uranium power rods from domestic nuclear power plants) is used to coat bombs and the ordinance used in conventional weapons (riffles, hand guns, etc.). These depleted uranium bunker busters, and gun ordinance that our soldiers carry, have been reported to have been, and continue to be, used extensively in the USA's middle east wars - Iraq & Afghanistan. Our military is coming home with the effects of this low level radiation poisoning as we speak. That is, if they're lucky enough to come home at all. If we should be fighting these wars or not is a subject for another discussion. As for a "connection with nuclear weapons", there can be no doubt.
Our Federal, State, and Local Governments (our elected servants) would like for us to believe that there is no danger from the nuke industry at any phase of it. Do the minimum of research and you will find that this is absolutely not true, A LIE! They (the politicians that work for the foreign and domestic corporations) would like for us to believe that we need nuclear energy to solve our domestic energy problems in terms of production of energy, and cost for that energy. They tout nuke energy as renewable, clean and affordable. This is THE BIGGEST LIE! Our existing nuclear energy production facilities (nuke plants) are at, and/or, reaching the end of their safe operating life cycles. There are new nuke plants on the table, but none of them are in, or anywhere close, to the beginning of construction. Why? (1) Private banks will not finance them because of the risks (financially, environmentally, and long term return on investment) without 100% loan guarantees from OUR federal government. That would be TRILLIONS of DOLLARS, our (the tax payers) dollars, invested in a non-renewable, 20 year max resource. (2) Although the industry has tried, there is no "cookie cutter" physical plant plan to mass produce nuclear power generation plants. ALL nuke plants must be individually engineered (meaning no economy of scale = MORE DOLLARS TO BUILD, including the inevitable cost over-runs) per location. Of the 30 or so plans currently under consideration, none of the future nuke plant blueprints have been approved. They simply do not meet the requirements of the authorizing governmental agencies.
So, if our existing nuke plants will all be shut down in a very few number of years, and new nuke plants, even if authorized to be built starting today, cannot come on line for at least 10 - 30 years, providing that they can get financing (which they can't - that's why some power companies in the USA are increasing their prices for electricity - they need to build a fund), why do we need uranium mining and milling at Cole's Hill or any other place in America? Why is the USA selling off excess uranium? We know why the USA imports uranium! It's to keep the bad guys from getting it. This is why Russia has such a lucrative deal with the USA to provide us with around 20% of our uranium needs. We need to corral their uranium stock piles to keep them from going to unfriendlies (to the United States) that will use the uranium to develop nuke and depleted uranium weapon capabilities. This is our (our government, not necessarily representing the people) nuke power problem with countries like Iran. They claim to want a domestic source of nuke energy, but do they? We (our government) claims to want a domestic nuke energy program, but do we (them, the corporation's paid for politicians)? In light of all of the other, truly sustainable, truly "green" Tree Hugger options for domestic energy - including the idea of pouring the nuke trillions of dollars into decentralizing our power supplies by investing in property by property energy independence through solar, wind, etc., that could then provide excess power into our centralized grid - why would we (the people) put up with the archaic, so yesterday, anti people and environment methods of power production that will give us they same old, same old? Sounds like a recipe for functional obsolescence. The same functional obsolescence that killed our auto industry. Something is NOT right. But, I'm sure that, as Tom promotes, we are too stupid to figure it out. After all, a bunch of ignorant rubes should not have anything to do with running the country. Leave that to the governmental experts!
• Chernobyl & Three Mile Island More "Lack of Understanding" and "Fear of the Unknown"? You bet! The ignorant masses, otherwise known worldwide as the "Opposition", do not understand how Chernobyl & Three Mile Island could have happened in light of governmental and corporate assurance that all was well, that melt downs could not possibly happen! In the case of Three Mile Island, the corporate lackeys (otherwise known as our elected government officials) led us to believe that there couldn't possibly be any danger because Three Mile Island was/is extremely well regulated and controlled. Inspections would/will surely find any potential problem(s) and make sure that it never causes any serious situations. Less serious problems, based on what is allowed to be a problem by regulations, will (and do) happen, but these problems will only effect a small number of people, lands, and water ways. If these people are scared, they can move - nobody is stopping them. Nobody is forcing them to live in the proximity of a major life threatening catastrophe waiting to happen. The people living in the area knew the risks - there was plenty of debate with the stupid opposition - why did they stay? I'm sure (as Walter Coles Jr. said to me in one of VUI's private presentations) that there was a boom in the real estate prices when uranium, I mean, nuke industry people moved in to fill well paying jobs. Why didn't they sell then? Idiots! I guess they just didn't understand! Guess they're not afraid enough of what "they don't know" to do the smart thing and leave. Because information about Three Mile Island, and every other nuke power plant and uranium mining and milling operation all over the world is readily available to anyone that really wants to know the truth. The pro nukers, miners & millers are not responsible for the ignorance of the masses! Their ignorance is proof as to why corporations, through their elected governing officials, should rule.
– Prejudice BRAVO! What a GREAT MARKETING, PUBLIC RELATIONS WORD to label the "Opposition" with! The word "prejudice" brings to mind ignorant people that are racist and more. Think "Neo-Nazis, Rednecks, Hicks, Stupid, Country Bumpkins, Politically Incorrect (OH NO! NOT POLITICALLY INCORRECT!), etc.
The pro nuke, uranium mining and milling people will try to convince you that anyone opposed to them, you know, the prejudice people that do not want nuke power, and by extension uranium mining and milling, and because, for some reason we are opposed to progress, are just, well, prejudice. Wish I would have thought of this for our opposition campaign! But then, I don't have a Million Dollar Plus (provided by foreign corporations) PR and Marketing budget. If I had thought of this label, I would have said that the pro folks are prejudice against truly sustainable, healthy electric power generation. Oh well! They thought of it first. Guess I'll just try to convince folks to be "discerning" when looking at the issues.
– Mysticism I am indeed mystified! I think it's "magic" the way the pro-nuclear, pro-uranium mining and milling folks twist and ignore the facts. I find it fascinating that they always come up with the money to get their way. I must suspend my disbelief when watching the slight of hand that happens when their lobbyists lobby (that's what they do. A lobbyist's job is to get an elected public servant to do a corporations will) OUR elected officials. Perhaps the corporations have hired an untold number of hypnotists? I can see it now... the room is dark, all eyes are on the lobbyist/hypnotist... the smell of money is wafting through the room (you know, for ambiance), and the lobbyist/hypnotist says: " You are all very greedy..., you all love money and power (rumor has it that you can't hypnotize someone to do anything that they are not already inclined to do)... you will all vote for a "study"..., you will all vote for uranium mining and milling in Virginia... When you awake at the count of three, you will not experience any remorse... You will not worry or think about your lack of personal fact finding... despite the fact that you have many personal aides that could do this for you... at tax payer expense..., Tax payers are only there to provide money for your wants and needs ..., You will be relaxed, happy, and rich... 1.., 2..., 3.....
– Political Positioning You are smart people, despite what Tom thinks! Need I say anything more on this topic? If your answer is yes, I still think that you're smart, but a glutton for punishment.
– Over Reaction I know that many people wrestle with this. What is the "proper" amount of reaction? How should it be expressed? When is it "under reaction"? How can we possibly know in this age of "blip" communication, where we might be misunderstood? What is the "proper" means to react? Who will give us the answers to these profound questions? Are the pro-nuke, uranium mining & milling folks causing us to "react"? If not, who is? Why have I never thought about these issues until VUI/Santoy/Virginia Energy Resources, INC. (whatever they call themselves this week) expressed the desire to make Billions of Dollars by mining and milling uranium in Pittsylvania County? Do the pro-uranium mining & milling folks have the answers? Didn't Walter Cole's say that HE would decide if uranium is mined and milled in Pittsylvania County (and the rest of VA by extension) publicly when he was quoted in many newspapers throughout Virginia as saying "if it can't be done safely, it won't be done"? Did I get short changed on information regarding Walter's qualifications to make this decision for the rest of us? Henry Hurt is quoted as saying: "If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can figure out how to safely mine (and mill) uranium (in the Commonwealth)". I know Henry is smart, but isn't this two different things? Isn't Tom's presentation to the NRC to the NA (NAS?) full of opinion and hyperbole, designed to discredit anyone with questions, never mined opposed to, nuke power, uranium mining & milling? Somebody! Please help me to react appropriately to this demeaning, paid for by the nuke industry, presentation! I'm at a loss... of knowledge as to the correct amount of reaction I should have to this insulting presentation, and the lack of indignation from MY elected officials, and... money to present real facts by people that are rightfully opposed to nuke energy, uranium mining and milling (STRONG PRESENTATIONS WITHOUT APOLOGY!).
I don't have a Million Dollar Plus marketing & Public Relations budget. I only have this one little blog and the goodwill (if I become a "story") of the media. Perhaps Tom will help me to react appropriately...
– Media Sensationalism MY EXPERIENCE IS THAT THE "MEDIA" TYPICALLY DOES NOT "SENSATIONALIZE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Except for editorial opinion pieces that can make, or break a movement that "they" don't approve of (let the "media" - Danville Register & Bee - figure out what I mean by this). Typically, the "media" reports. That's their job. You will always have young, cub reporters (think John Crane) that, if there is nothing newsworthy that's sensational, will create sensation in how he chooses to report. This "killing of the Golden Goose" is how these young reporters, to their chagrin, think that they can create a "story" worth printing. Anyone that has undergone "how to deal with the media 101" in corporate training knows to watch out for this. Even so, sometimes you get blind-sided by an overzealous, trying-to-be-up-and-comer reporter.
It's up to the "warring factions" to make news, and "sensationalize" a subject. The media coverage of dissenting voices is Tom's topic in this presentation to the NRC of the NA (NAS?). My opinion is that Tom is warning the "media". He's telling them to print only the pro-nuke, pro-uranium mining and milling perspectives or risk the wrath of the "powers that be".
Unless, of course, they are favorably reporting the pro side of things! Some "media" might be happy with that. Unfortunately, the era of true investigative reporting has gone the way of the dinosaur. It's much more cost effective to "stir the pot" than to truly dig in and uncover the facts! If this is not true, let the "media" prove me wrong. Let the "media" not make decisions about content based on advertising dollars. Let the "media" prove that "news" and "investigative journalism" is based on issues independent of ratings, readership, advertising (real or potential) dollars, and political influence. Let the "media" win back the respect that it once had. This is the ONLY way that the "media" can counter the charge of "media sensationalism" leveled by the pro-nuke, pro-uranium mining & milling industry.
– Mistrust of Government RegulatorsLet's see... where to begin... No matter which side of the aisle you are on, all of us can list a multitude of sins (some listed in this editorial) that cause us, as individuals and groups of people, to not trust "The Government". Why is that? Why is it that the only constituency that does trust "The Government" has names that end in INC. and LLC? Could it be that these "people" know something that we don't?
Look, there are plenty (a majority) of companies and corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, that are "good corporate citizens". Indeed, non-profits (such as The Alliance, CELDF, SCC, United Way, Kids & Kritters to name a few) could not exist without the American corporate structure. There would also be many (vastly many) jobs that would not exist without small, for-profit enterprises. But, let's be realistic! None of these not-for-profit and small for-profit corporations can dictate "government regulations" like national & international corporations can.
Surprise! Our elected and appointed government officials DO NOT dictate "government regulations" So, who does dictate "government regulations"?
Big corporations. Not local Mom & Pops. Really HUGE corporations. The kind of corporations that put local (including regional and some state wide) businesses out of business! These conglomerates, often financed from foreign (not American) resources, such as VUI/Santoy/Virginia Energy Resources - a wholly owned CANADIAN corporation - have the financial resources to buy anything they want! Including our government. How do they do this? They have a multi-prong approach (just go to the Canadian stock exchange to see what Walter & company is up to). They promote their cause publicly through the media and charitable donations. In fact, they put millions of dollars (don't believe for one minute the "small company" poverty plea of VUI, "America") into "Public Education, Public Relations, Advertising, and Marketing campaigns".
They hire the best, high powered lobbyists that they can afford (trust me, they have the best). These lobbyists write the proposed legislation. Remember, it was Whitt Clement, Brother-In-Law to Walter Coles, (the man that has taken it upon himself to decide if uranium mining & milling is "safe" on his property - he owns the biggest share of the ore that, when mined & milled, will pay him, at minimum, Millions. The ore is estimated to be worth Billions as long as there is a domestic world wide nuke energy market for it. No wonder VUI's private presentations focus on the nuclear industry instead of the local issue of uranium mining & milling. In fact, you really can't get them - VUI - to talk much about the local issue of uranium mining and milling) and a renowned Richmond lobbyist that convinced VA Senator Frank Wagner to include uranium mining and milling in his 2006 energy bill, later adopted by the Governor of Virginia. We (the people) have been under the threat of this scourge on humanity ever since. We, the people, NEVER asked for this controversy. Walter Coles and his investors forced this controversy on us, against our will. They have manipulated the General Assembly, the Coal & Energy Commission (not an elected panel, but an appointed panel responsible to, and reporting to no one. So, what's in this for them?), and the media to achieve their goals. The nuke industry, in full support of uranium mining and milling, manipulates through presentations like Tom's to the national government, and appointed governmental bodies such as the NRC of the NA (NAS?), and the media. The nuke industry also forces it's propaganda on unwitting citizens through paid advertising and the intimidation... I mean manipulation... of the "media".
Have I mentioned that industries such as nuke energy and mining of every kind - including uranium mining and milling - are the ones that write the regulations? Sad, but true. Our government (the elected people that supposedly represent you and me) consider the industry people the experts in the field. Therefore, our elected officials abdicate their responsibilities to protect us poor dumb citizens to the very people that are in the business to make money. This is where the idea of "cost benefit analysis" comes from. Big corporations analyze their potential financial exposure concerning breaking their own "regulations". The regulations that they had their elected officials put in place. If their analysis determines that it is more profitable to "break the regulations", also known as committing an illegal act, they will do so. After all, they know the rules (that they made) and repercussions much better than anyone else. It's their business to know!
This finally brings us to the idea that people have a "mistrust" of government regulators. Duh! Why should we trust government regulators when they work for the very corporations that they are supposed to regulate. At best, they will find wrong doing and impose the sanctions that the regulated industry has approved, creating a profitable (but not healthy) situation for all (of them) concerned. Even if a regulatory agency wanted to do its job for the people, they DO NOT have the money. Want proof? Take a look at how many inspectors there are, per state, and how many bridges per state they are required to "regulate", inspect, keep safe for the citizens. It makes me cringe every time I cross one. It's not the inspector's fault, it's the government's fault. It's not the government's fault, it's the people's fault. In this case, the "people" does not include corporations.
Corporations are only "people" when it comes to "their" (whoever "they" are) rights. Funny how corporation rights always trump people's rights. Its like corporations have the same number of votes that every counted-in-the-census human being has, times two! Now we're back to mysticism. I think this has something to do with the smell of money in the room whenever big corporations influence... I mean talk to their... I mean our, elected government officials.
Trust the regulators? I think not! We, THE PEOPLE, have plenty of reason to not trust them.
So, the call to action? I challenge every person (not corporations, but including their elected officials) to do the following:
Ask yourself what YOU are doing to learn the facts?
Ask yourself what YOU are doing to make a difference in the debate?
Ask yourself how much respect you have for someone that deliberately remains ignorant of the issues in today's world of information technology, yet espouses their opinion as if it's fact?
Ask yourself how much respect you have for an industry (the entire nuke industry from uranium mining and milling to power plants and depleted uranium ordinance production) that spends Millions of Dollars to control your government, your media, and the very thoughts that you think? An industry that would allow, indeed sponsor, Tom Pool, Chairman, International Nuclear, to speak on its behalf? An industry that demeans and ridicules, demonizes and criminalizes, any PERSON that disagrees with them. Ask yourself, are they looking out for your best interest, or theirs?
Ask yourself how you really feel about the corporate owned politicians that sanction this abuse of you and your family? Ask yourself if you want a country ruled by BULLIES?
Ask yourself what are YOU doing to educate the, according to Tom Pool, Chairman, International Nuclear, ignorant masses (my words, his by inference)?
Ask yourself, are YOU willing to do anything at all, one way or the other? If not, don't think that you have any right to rejoice or complain no matter what happens. You deserve to get what your sowing reaps. If so, and I'm referring to REAL human beings, NOT corporations, THEN DO IT. Thinking about it doesn’t count. DO SOMETHING! Doing something DOES NOT include living in the past, using this crisis to remind all concerned of past glories. When you do this, you make yourself look foolish and irrelevant. It causes people that may be on your side to distance themselves from you. It hurts your cause. It doesn’t matter what you've done in the past, or how long your family has lived in the South. What matters is your RELEVANT contribution to the issues at hand. Doing something DOES NOT mean seeking media attention and glory for yourself. This is not productive to your cause. The issues are important, not the people that deliver the message.
If you do something, understand that YOU are doing it. Take pride in that! Do not rely on groups (such as The Alliance or SCC), or any one individual, to take action for you. Take personal responsibility for the outcome of this and any other issue that you feel is important.
Participate in YOUR government. The surest way to take back our inherent, and rightful, governing authority is to participate in the process. Attend your Town & City council meetings. Attend your County Board of Supervisors meetings. Attend your School Board meetings. Attend your Zoning Commission meetings. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD! There is a saying that "all politics is local". If you do not regain control of the polotics at the local level, you will never stand a chance of demanding your constitutional rights at the state and federal level. The pro-nuke, pro-uranium mining and milling corporations may have a LOT of dollars to vote with, but THE PEOPLE still go to the ballot box. Ultimately it is We, The People, that allow these travesties, these corruptions of our way of life to happen. It is up to each of us to take a stand, to participate, to own our futures. To say loud and clear, I claim MY right to live free of the corruption that has become prevalent in MY country, the United States of America.
Recognize that our government has become corrupted by mega national and international corporations. Recognize that YOU have a right to live in this country free of the abuse and corruption in YOUR government that is being caused by these corporations.
Are YOU listening?Are you THINKING? Will you heed this call to action?
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World Report: Uranium Mining: Vital for the Future, But Not in My Backyard!
Cover to Cover
Shireen Parsons is featured in this TV interview.
LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!
Historic Leases That VUI Wants
Marline held 40,000 acres in Pittsylvania County alone! Coles Hill will only be the FIRST mine! YOU'RE NEXT!
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Hurricane Fran, Flood Of '96
Raw home video of the flood in the Coles Hill area. TO WATCH THIS VIDEO FULL SCREEN, PRESS PLAY, THEN LEFT DOUBLE CLICK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN. THIS WILL TAKE YOU TO You Tube WHERE YOU CAN WATCH IT FULL SCREEN. IT'S MUCH EASIER TO READ THE TRANSITION SCREENS THIS WAY.
LET'S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!
February 18, 2009, John Crane, of the Danville Register and Bee, quoted the Chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, Coy Harville (known by some as "King Coy") as saying: "Davis’ authorship of a resolution without telling the board ahead of time was "sneaky." However, Harville said he voted for it because the resolution, when given to the Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Subcommittee, won’t make much difference anyway."
"It’s just a piece of paper," he said.
Harville, who had initially voted for the combined resolution before supporting Davis’, declined to reveal his opinion of uranium mining, saying instead there’s a state moratorium on the practice.
This is in response to Supervisor Hank Davis' motion to resolve that the "Study Commission", currently considering a study to lift the moratorium on uranium mining and milling in Virginia, must find that there be "no damage or harm to Pittsylvania County, its businesses, institutions, environments, and its citizens by uranium mining, as opposed to a cost/benefit approach to this issue or simply accepting minimal damages". Supervisor Marshall Ecker seconded this motion.
In other words, the "Study Commission" must find that this criterion is met conclusively and absolutely before recommending that the current moratorium on uranium mining be lifted.
The above language is EXACTLY what Mr. Davis submitted to the County for the BOS Packet for the 2/17/09 BOS meeting. It appears that, at least Mr. Sleeper (County Administrator), felt a need to rewrite Mr. Davis' resolution to be submitted to the full Board. TALK ABOUT SNEAKY!
Could it be that Mr. Sleeper was directed to do this by a higher authority? The County Administrator is subject to the Chairman of the Board's direction when the BOS is not in session...
Mr. Davis did not accept this weak, groveling, resolution and submitted his original material.
After a nonsensical debate of "combining" the two resolutions, Mr. Davis' resolution was passed unanimously.
As a member of the audience watching this comedy of errors, I must tell you that, in my mind, this unanimous vote nearly didn't happen. My impression, watching Mr. Harville, was that he found himself surprised that EVERY hand was up in favor of Mr. Davis' resolution. It appeared to me that, this being the case, as opposed to the usual "gang of 4" block vote - Harville, Pritchett, Snead and Barber, that he is used to, he found himself the odd man out, so stuck his hand up and declared a "unanimous" vote.
Harville's inane comments recorded above proves out my impression and shows, in my mind, his complete and utter disdain of Pittsylvania County, its businesses, institutions, environments, and its citizens.
It is obvious that his vote was meaningless to him! One must wonder why? It is SHOCKING that an elected "servant" of the community would react this way!
So, other than producing a "wasted" piece of paper (by the way, as much as I hate to admit it, Harville's statements are TRUE), what was accomplished Tuesday night?
Tuesday night proved that people, working together for a common cause, CAN have control of their future and take back their inherent GOVERNING AUTHORITY! King Coy and his ilk DO NOT RULE US! They REPRESENT US! They do not, and will not, work for CORPORATION'S INTERESTS ON OUR DIME!
Davis and Ecker deserve our thanks and support. They have helped us to achieve a major, if inadequate step.
The next step will be to codify into law protections that will forever protect "Pittsylvania County, its businesses, institutions, environments, and its citizens".
GV
JOBS?
I challenge VUI/Santoy to qualify and QUANTIFY their claim of 300 - 500 jobs! Until they do, their words are NOTHING but wishful thinking! Designed to mis-lead the people to gain their support! GV
Uranium Mines & Mills Throughout The World
What would happen if there was massive flooding (such as Hurricane Fran) and Coles Hill had 2 open pits, each as big as what you will see in these photos?
URANIUM - THE MOVIE
Please Watch The Award Winning Movie, URANIUM, After Our Membership Application at the Bottom of This Page.
This movie tells you everything you need to know about uranium mining & milling. PLEASE WATCH.
I know it's about 45 minutes long, but it is well worth your time!
Gregg
There Is No Energy Crisis, There is a Crisis of Ignorance
Salt Water Fuel
HARNESSING THE POWER OF WAVES & TIDES
Alternative Energy: Wave-Powered Ocean Energy Technology
What's Behind Uranium Mining And Milling In Virginia
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
VUI and the General Assembly
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
Part 3 Candian Company?
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
Part 4 - VUI's Advertised Goals
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
Part 5 - Vui's True Goals per Their Prospectus
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
Part 6 A - VUI's Risks
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
Part 6 B
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
PIT MINING BLASTS
This is how open pit mining is done. This dust will go into our air and settle on our land AND in our water. This is the first step in a chain of events that will pollute our environment. We will breathe, eat, and drink this poison. It will cause cancer and a host of other health problems slowly, over time. The build up of radioactive elements, lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals is accumulative. THIS DUST KILLS! MINING AND MILLING OF URANIUM MUST NEVER HAPPEN IN VIRGINIA!
CLICK THE MENU BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF THE MOVIE PLAYER SCREEN TO VIEW A VARIETY OF CLIPS
Part 8 A - Our Concerns
To watch this movie full screen, click in the center of the player. This will take you to the movie at YouTube. Click the lower right corner of the player at YouTube. This will give you a full screen view.
All That Glitters is not Gold
Why is SCC and the Alliance concerned about uranium mining and milling in Virginia? This short film really sums it up! It's about the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia. Their plight mirrors our own if uranium mining and milling EVER takes place in Virginia.
URANIUM MINING & MILLING HAS NEVER BEEN DONE SAFELY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!
WHILE SOME SAY THAT THEY WANT (AND NEED) A "STUDY", THE ONLY TRUE INFORMATION CAN COME FROM WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST.
Studying "how" to mine and mill uranium in Virginia is much different than studying "should" we mine and mill uranium in Virginia. REMEMBER: All uranium mining and milling has been done with the "latest technology" since its inception.
ALL OF THAT TECHNOLOGY HAS FAILED!
Since mining and milling has NEVER been done in an area with our population (OVER 500,000 people within 120 miles of the proposed mine and milling operation and many, many more down stream to the Atlantic Ocean) and our net precipitation (greater than evaporation) any "study" of "how" to mine and mill uranium in Pittsylvania County, or anywhere else in Virginia, will be a THEORY. AN EXPERIMENT! Remember your school days? In science class you posed a theory, then designed an experiment to prove it true or false. THIS EXPERIMENT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO KILL!
WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN A DICUSSION ABOUT URANIUM MINING? JOIN THE NoVaUranium LISTSERVE HERE!
Wise Uranium Slide Show
Click here to watch a 45 minute slide show that details uranium mining, tailings management, and dangers of mining and milling uranium. As you watch this slide show, keep in mind that the deposit at Coles Hill is estimated to contain 110 MILLION pounds of uranium ore. This means that approximately 74 MILLION POUNDS (30,579 TONS) of waste rock will be produced. This waste rock (Tailings) will have to be contained/disposed of for at least 1,000 years!
Wise Uranium Slide Show
What is......THE Alliance!!!
THE Alliance is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to fighting corporate assaults through Rights Based Organizing and Education. Our goal is to help preserve the quality of life in the communities that we work with. Our current focus is on the impending mining & milling of uranium in Virginia.
In 1983, as now, the desire of local and multi-national corporations to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County, and eventually the entire state, is of immediate and urgent concern.
We oppose this and any exploratory drilling because we know that it cannot be done safely! We also oppose it because of the burden of the environmental clean up that will be placed on our local communities, state, and future generations when the mine companies cease their operations.
We oppose it because of the extremely negative economic and social impact it will have on our fragile local economies. And, we oppose it because of the disastrous effect it will have on the esthetics of our beautiful, bountiful lands.
To get your Anti-Uranium Mining Yard Signs, send an email with your contact information to: alliance123@ymail.com. $10 each.
URANIUM---The Movie !!
If you care about Pittsylvania County...... If you care about who gets to make the decisions that affect you and your family........ If you care about what all the "buzz" is about........ If you care..................
scroll to the bottom of this page and take the time to watch the excellent documentary, Uranium. It lasts about 1 hour. This movie is presented for educational purposes only. Do not exhibit this movie commercially without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder. To order this movie, please click here.
Have your thoughts, feelings, and opinions heard Statewide!! Clink on the link below to access newspapers across the state! Follow instructions to send your letter to as many as 17 different newspapers!
Comment: Fly Rock, Blasting, environmental impact, the future of blowing up Virginia hillsides for uranium!
