Duke Doubles Cost Estimate For Nuclear Plant

And who do you think they expect to guarantee their construction loans? Their customers and the taxpayers. Banks are not an option.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Duke Energy Carolinas has raised the expected construction costs of its proposed Lee Nuclear Station to $11 billion, excluding financing costs. That’s roughly twice the company’s original estimates.

Based on the financing costs for Duke’s new coal-powered unit at Cliffside Steam Station, financing expenses would increase the nuclear plant’s price to more than $14 billion.

The new estimate is included in a cover letter Duke has sent to the N.C. Utilities Commission with its 2008 Integrated Resource Plan. That annual plan outlines Duke’s expectations for demand over a 20-year period and outlines how the utility expects to meet the demand.

The plan also upgrades the expected capacity of the Cliffside unit to 825 megawatts. As originally designed, it was rated at 800 megawatts. The plant is being built on the border of Cleveland and Rutherford counties.

Duke’s plan also discloses that the troubled U.S. economy has prompted the company to delay the construction of its proposed Dan River and Buck combined-cycle natural gas plants.The construction of each plant will be delayed for a year because the weak economy may affect demand and because the current credit crunch makes financing unattractive.

The first phase of the Buck plant in Rowan County will now open in 2011, with construction of a second phase to start the following year. The Dan River facility in Rockingham County will open in the summer of 2012.

The cost estimates for Duke’s proposed nuclear plant in Gaffney, S.C., have proved controversial. Three years ago, Duke gave an estimate of $4 billion to $6 billion for the two 1,117-megawatt reactors it proposed to build. Duke had not updated those figures until now. Opponents of the project have noted that nearly identical plants proposed in Florida will cost as much as $17.8 billion.

The Lee plant is slated for completion in 2018. But Duke’s new estimates for the project are not adjusted for future inflation. Company spokeswoman Paige Sheehan says Duke did not attempt to calculate how much the final costs would be, with inflation factored in. She says there are too many uncertainties to calculate a firm number. The company chose to release its new estimate based on the current costs.

For several months, Duke has acknowledged the costs of the plant were increasing. The company disclosed updated estimates to regulators in the Carolinas in the spring. But they declined to release those figures to the public, saying such disclosure would cripple negotiations on construction contracts. (emphasis mine...SB)

But company officials said throughout the summer that they hoped to be able to release ballpark estimates this fall. The company included its new cost estimate with its filing Monday with N.C. regulators.

Duke Energy Carolinas is a unit of Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2008/11/03/daily21.html

Professor Addresses Mining Impact [in Chatham]

It is my understanding that Dr. Brugge, when asked if he'd live in Pittsylvania Co. near the mine answered "No" and that he also said he'd not let his daughter drink water from any of the wells in the mining area. I'm surprised that Mr. Crane neglected to include those items in his article.

Published: November 8, 2008

By John Crane

CHATHAM — Uranium mining in the Southwest after WWII caused health and environmental ruin among the Navajos, but the impact of mining uranium ore in Southside Virginia remains to be seen, according to a Harvard-educated professor from Tufts University.

Douglas M. Brugge, associate professor in Tufts University Medical School’s Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, spoke to more than 100 people at the Community Center in Chatham on Saturday night. The Dan River Basin Association sponsored the event.

Brugge said he doesn’t know how Virginia Uranium Inc. will mine a deposit at Coles Hill, and he doesn’t know enough about the area’s hydrogeology to determine the effects of mining and milling in Pittsylvania County. The weather and geology are different in the Southwest, where about 6,000 people in Utah who suffered the effects of uranium mining and milling have been compensated under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, he said.

Businesses mined uranium in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and left behind a mess, Brugge said.

“Uranium waste, tailings (and) low-grade ore were left exposed and not dealt with in a careful manner,” Brugge said.

Brugge outlined a history of uranium mining in the Southwest and the known health effects of the practice. Just after WWII, the federal government was the sole legal buyer of uranium in the United States, and that generated a mining boom in the Southwest, Brugge said. But up to 25 years after it ended, tailings and abandoned mines can still be found in the backyards of Navajos, with children playing among the waste, Brugge said as he showed photos.

Uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years and goes through a decaying process, changing back-and-forth from uranium to thorium and to radon. Those exposed to uranium are exposed to a number of substances, Brugge said.

“Radon is an exquisitely potent … carcinogen,” he said, adding that it is known to cause lung cancer. However, it’s more hazardous in confined spaces and doesn’t travel in the air for long distances, he said.

Most of the bad health effects of uranium come from heavy-metal toxicity, Brugge said. Preliminary results of research currently performed by one of Brugge’s graduate students show kidney damage and birth defects among people living in proximity to uranium on the Navajo reservation.

It is among mine workers that health consequences of uranium are most strongly proven, he said.

Also, a lab study found that uranium can cause genetic mutations and has estrogenic compounds that can feminize male animals, Brugge said. Effects on humans in that regard are not clear, he said.

“It’s worrisome and definitely worthy of further investigation,” Brugge said.

Other, more solidly known health effects in humans include radium causing bone cancer and leukemia and arsenic resulting in lung and skin cancers, Brugge said.

Henry Hurt, an investor in VUI, attended the presentation and said Brugge’s speech proved points that the company has emphasized.

“The lessons learned have led to advances in tailings management” and tighter regulations, Hurt said. What happened to the Navajos decades ago is an example of how not to mine and mill uranium, Hurt said.

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/professor_addresses_mining_impact/7344/

Virginia Panel Approves Study of Mining Vast Uranium Trove

A few interesting tidbits in this item:

From Mining Companies Exploration and Investment News


A state commission approved a study Thursday to examine the impact of mining a rich uranium ore deposit in Virginia believed to be the largest untapped trove of uranium in North America.


The unanimous vote by the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission could be the first step toward ending a 1980s moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia. The study will center on a deposit in rural Southside Virginia that contains 119 million pounds of uranium ore valued between $8 billion and $10 billion.

The U.S. now produces only 4.7 million pounds of the 65 million pounds of uranium ore used domestically each year, according to Mick Mastilovic, vice president of operations for Virginia Uranium Inc., the Chatham company that wants to begin mining.

The yellow cake ore is primarily used for nuclear power plants, which now rely on uranium from Canada, Australia and Russia.

The study will pair the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech with the National Academy of Sciences. An independent study supported by Virginia Uranium failed in the General Assembly earlier this year because some feared it was tilted toward mining.

Del. Terry G. Kilgore, chairman of the legislative panel that approved Thursday’s study, said the commission’s examination would probably take 18 months to two years to complete and would include significant public involvement.

“We need to leave no stone unturned on this. If it’s not safe, we don’t want to do it,” Kilgore said of the mining.

Virginia has had a moratorium on uranium mining since 1981, two years after the accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2, which remains the most serious commercial nuclear power accident in the United States. The accident and the nuclear power protests that followed virtually ended the building of new nuclear power plants in the U.S.

The nation, however, has seen a renewed interest in nuclear power and energy independence, and President-elect Barack Obama has said he does not oppose the energy source. The price of uranium has increased.

At a brief hearing before the commission, Sarah Motley said her family homestead dating back 150 years is within 2 miles of the uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County, near the North Carolina line. She opposed mining 25 years ago and still worries about its environmental toll.

“We don’t know what the right thing to do is, but we still have concerns,” she said after the meeting.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, which supports the moratorium, said uranium mining is often a surface operation susceptible to severe weather. The environmental group is concerned about uranium mining’s impact on groundwater, livestock and the health of local residents.

“We’ve got to proceed with caution because were are heading into uncharted territory,” said Cale Jaffe, a senior attorney for the law center.

Whit Clement, representing Virginia Uranium, said the two Virginia families who own a controlling interest in the company are mindful of the worries of those who oppose the mining. He said the independent, science-based study will determine “if it can be done safely.”

“You can rest assured that the environmentalists will make sure that not only is everything studied, but they will oppose it in the end,” Clement said.

http://investatasia.com/2008/11/10/mining-finance/virginia-panel-approves-study-of-mining-vast-uranium-trove/

Uranium Study Plans Cause Concern -- WSET TV

Pittsylvania Co., VA - There will be a study on the effects of uranium mining in Virginia. We told you about the decision from the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy to proceed with the study. That's causing concern for some area residents. County resident Karen Maute just finished mitigating her basement of radon. She's not nervous about her home anymore, but for her, this study is a step toward mining.

Karen Maute, Concerned Resident - "If we've got radon already in our homes and we're being exposed to it there why would we want to open up a big pit and have more radon?"

Maute doesn't need a study to tell her what she already knows.

Maute - "Common sense dictates us that's it’s not a good thing to have a uranium mine in your town!"

State Delegate Danny Marshall doesn't mind a study as long as it's all-inclusive.

Danny Marshall, (R) State Delegate - "What's going to happen 3 years from now, 30 years from now, 300 years from now."

But if it's not...

Marshall - "If we don't look at the health of the community, if we don't look at the property values or the welfare of the communities then we shouldn't go forth with the study."

The study could last up to two years. A time frame Maute believes is too long.

Maute - "Who's going to look at this place and say yeah I want to invest my time and energy and move my family here until this thing is resolved and so we're just prolonging it."

Not everyone shares her sentiment.

Kyle McKinney, Resident - "It's a natural resource it’s ours and we should go and get it and I think the way that we get it is probably safe enough."

Jason Guzauskas, Resident - "I think we need to at least explore it and if there's a way to make revenue and create jobs in the area its worth pursing as long as it’s not an outright detriment to our area."

Then there are residents like Maute.

Maute - "I wish they'd just ban uranium mining in Virginia because it’s just not the place for it."

The Commission can only make recommendations according to their findings. Only the General Assembly can lift the current moratorium

http://www.wset.com/news/stories/1108/568098.html

Uranium Mining to be Studied

By REX SPRINGSTON

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Panel to consider economic, health and other impacts of tapping Pittsylvania sites

A state panel is planning a study of uranium mining's impact on Virginia.

The Commission on Coal and Energy endorsed the study yesterday by a 12-0 vote.

The commission's chairman, Del. Terry G. Kilgore, R-Scott, said the study will look broadly at uranium mining's health, economic, social and other impacts.

"I want this study to be fair, and I want a lot of public involvement," he said after the meeting at the General Assembly Building in Richmond.

The commission asked Virginia Tech's Center for Coal and Energy Research to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences, or a similar institution, to conduct the study. The center and the commission will assist.

A subcommittee of the commission must approve an outline of the study before it moves forward.

A state House of Delegates committee killed a study proposal in March. Kilgore said his panel is probably the best group to oversee a study.

Mining supporters say about 110 million pounds of uranium, worth about $8 billion, may lie underground in Pittsylvania County in south-central Virginia. They say mining the nuclear fuel would help address America's energy needs.

Opponents say wind and rain could carry radioactive waste to streams and crops.

Virginia has banned uranium mining since the early 1980s, when a similar proposal died amid community opposition and falling uranium prices. The market has since rebounded.

Cale Jaffe, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said mining in the U.S. is done in the dry, sparsely populated West.

"We are really going into uncharted territory" by considering mining in Virginia, he told the commission.

Whitt Clement, a former delegate and ex-state transportation secretary, spoke on behalf of Virginia Uranium Inc., formed by landowners who want to mine the Pittsylvania deposits.

These owners simply want a fair study of mining's impact, Clement said. "They don't want to do anything that will hurt their community."

Del. Daniel W. Marshall III, R-Danville, asked that the study go beyond the science of mining and into its effect on farms, property values and people's health.

Kilgore said those issues would be covered. "We need to leave no stones unturned on this."

The study could last up to two years and cost $1 million, Kilgore said. He hopes mining supporters and opponents will fund the study.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/business.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-11-07-0153.html

A Blow to Nuclear Power in Chicago

By HARVEY WASSERMAN


As the world media filled with the victory of Barack Obama, a defeat for atomic power in his own back yard sent a Solartopian message to the new administration.


In the Chicago-area communities of Oak Park, Berwyn and Riverside, voters approved by well over two-to-one a referendum asking that “our elected officials in Illinois take steps to phase out nuclear power in the state, replacing it with renewable sources such as wind and solar.”


The three communities currently rely on atomic power for some 75% of their electricity, which is supplied through Commonwealth Edison, a subsidiary of Exelon, America's largest nuke owner. With 11 operating reactors, Illinois has more reactors than any other state.


But 31,586 (68.3%) voters approved the referendum, versus 14,676 (31.7%) opposed.


Atomic energy will be one of the most critical issues the new administration will face. Obama was criticized by eco-advocates for taking campaign donations from Exelon. Both he and Vice President-elect Joe Biden expressed campaign support for atomic power.


But their stance was moderated by Obama’s insistence that atomic power be “safe,” and by his ads he ran in Nevada opposing the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump. Some 80% of Nevada citizens oppose that project, whose projected cost now runs about $100 billion.


By contrast, John McCain vehemently advocated the quick construction of some 45 new reactors. He derided the moderation of Obama's reactor advocacy, pointing with pride to his own naval service on nuke-powered vessels.


But the issue of how to finance such a “nuclear renaissance” now overshadows all the rhetoric, and will define the technology’s future.


A strong lobby with a slick, expensive pubic relations campaign is now pushing new nukes here. New ratepayer-based reactor financing is now being shoved through state public utilities commissions in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and possibly elsewhere, with tens of billions in potential liability.


But Wall Street has given thumbs down to a technology that can't compete with Solartopian sources like wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and other green energies.


The future of new reactor construction thus depends on massive federal and state subsidies. In the fall of 2007, the industry inserted into a Congressional energy bill a package of loan guarantees meant to provide $50 billion in taxpayer-backed funds to build new reactors.


Reactor projects fail about 50% of the time, and such a package could have stuck taxpayers with a massive liability. A national grassroots campaign led in part by NukeFree.org and musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash helped defeat the package. Not a single major national environmental organization supported the guarantees.


This fall an even larger federal loan plan, offering virtually unlimited funds, was on its way to the US Senate. Pushed by McCain, it could have provided a half-trillion dollars in new taxpayer guarantees to build just the 45 reactors McCain proposed.


But when Wall Street collapsed, the federal bank bailout made the idea of taking on still more huge financial liabilities untenable.


As Barack Obama takes office in January, green power advocates will again argue that along with questions of terror and error, radioactive waste and ecological harm, nuke power is far too expensive to compete with Solartopian green power.


The clock is ticking very fast on the idea of new nukes. With projected construction times of a decade or more, new reactors cannot begin to deliver energy for many years after the installation of competing green sources, whose comparative costs continue to drop.


So this small but strong Chicago-area vote for a Solartopian future sends a very clear message. A powerful new nuke lobby will be pushing hard from Day One of the new administration.


But in today’s financial and political climate, atomic energy cannot compete. A green-powered planet is the only one that will sell on both Main Street and Wall Street.


http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman11062008.html

Reaction Mixed to Uranium Study Ruling

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: November 6, 2008

A study will be undertaken to determine whether uranium can be safely mined in Virginia.

The Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy voted unanimously Thursday to proceed with the study.

Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, said he attended the meeting, along with Delegate Don Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County, and asked the commission to broaden the study to include the health, economic and social impact such mining would have in Southside.

“It’s about more than just digging a hole and getting uranium out,” Marshall said after the meeting. “What happens to real estate values? What impact will it have on Chatham Hall and Hargrave enrollment? What impact will it have on health now, 30 years from now, 300 years from now — here and downstream?”

Marshall said he also encouraged the commission to have pre-study public hearings in Pittsylvania County, where the mining would take place, so the people who will be directly affected can provide questions they want to see answered by the study.

“I think we may need two studies,” Marshall said. “One to look at the mining of it, and second to study the social, health and economic impact.”

Marshall said about 20 people from Pittsylvania and Halifax counties were at the meeting in Richmond.

Jack Dunavant, chairman of Southside Concerned Citizens, said the decision to proceed with the study did not surprise him.

“I think it’s probably going to be a setup,” Dunavant said. “It (the study) will come back and say it’s safe, when everyone knows it isn’t. I don’t think it will be a fair and impartial study.”

Dunavant said uranium mining has never been done in an area as populated as Pittsylvania County, and that it would affect every facet of life in the region.

“We’ve been through this before, in the 80s when they put the moratorium in,” he said. “We need to put this to rest for good.”

Walter Coles, of Virginia Uranium Inc., said he is pleased the study is going forward.

“It’s the right way to go,” Coles said. “This points it in the right direction, to the scientific community.”

Coles said he understands that the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech will handle setting up the scope of the study and will negotiate with the National Academy of Sciences to do the actual study.

Marshall said he expects the study to take a year or two to complete, and then the findings have to come before the Gen-eral Assembly.

“The moratorium can only be lifted by the General Assembly; the governor would have to pass it, too,” Marshall said. “The commission is only advisory. It has no legislative power to lift the moratorium; it can only make recommendations.”

Contact Denice Thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7985.

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/reaction_to_uranium_study_ruling/7294/

Virginia Commission OKs Study of Uranium Mining

11/06/2008

By STEVE SZKOTAK / Associated Press

A state commission approved a study Thursday to examine the impact of mining a rich uranium ore deposit in Virginia believed to be the largest untapped trove of uranium in North America.

The unanimous vote by the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission could be the first step toward ending a 1980s moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia. The study will center on a deposit in rural Southside Virginia that contains 119 million pounds of uranium ore valued between $8 billion and $10 billion.

The U.S. now produces only 4.7 million pounds of the 65 million pounds of uranium ore used domestically each year, according to Mick Mastilovic, vice president of operations for Virginia Uranium Inc., the Chatham company that wants to begin mining.

The yellow cake ore is primarily used for nuclear power plants, which now rely on uranium from Canada, Australia and Russia.

The study will pair the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech with the National Academy of Sciences. An independent study supported by Virginia Uranium failed in the General Assembly earlier this year because some feared it was tilted toward mining.

Del. Terry G. Kilgore, chairman of the legislative panel that approved Thursday's study, said the commission's examination would probably take 18 months to two years to complete and would include significant public involvement.

"We need to leave no stone unturned on this. If it's not safe, we don't want to do it," Kilgore said of the mining.

Virginia has had a moratorium on uranium mining since 1981, two years after the accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2, which remains the most serious commercial nuclear power accident in the United States. The accident and the nuclear power protests that followed virtually ended the building of new nuclear power plants in the U.S.

The nation, however, has seen a renewed interest in nuclear power and energy independence, and President-elect Barack Obama has said he does not oppose the energy source. The price of uranium has increased.

At a brief hearing before the commission, Sarah Motley said her family homestead dating back 150 years is within 2 miles of the uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County, near the North Carolina line. She opposed mining 25 years ago and still worries about its environmental toll.

"We don't know what the right thing to do is, but we still have concerns," she said after the meeting.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, which supports the moratorium, said uranium mining is often a surface operation susceptible to severe weather. The environmental group is concerned about uranium mining's impact on groundwater, livestock and the health of local residents.

"We've got to proceed with caution because were are heading into uncharted territory," said Cale Jaffe, a senior attorney for the law center.

Whit Clement, representing Virginia Uranium, said the two Virginia families who own a controlling interest in the company are mindful of the worries of those who oppose the mining. He said the independent, science-based study will determine "if it can be done safely."

"You can rest assured that the environmentalists will make sure that not only is everything studied, but they will oppose it in the end," Clement said.

http://www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D949M8CG0.html

Speaker to Discuss Effects of Uranium -- Chatham Community Center -- Saturday, Nov. 8, 7:00 pm

Folks, this is an extraordinary opportunity to have local ostriches and doubters hear the bad news about the health effects of uranium mining from someone who speaks with authority. Spread the word to everyone you know! The Chatham Community Center should be packed to capacity Saturday night!


By TIM DAVIS/Chatham Star-Tribune Editor

The Dan River Basin Association will sponsor a free educational program on the health effects of uranium mining Saturday, Nov. 8.

Douglas M. Brugge will speak about the effects of uranium mining and milling on human health at 7 p.m. at Chatham Community Center.

Brugge (pronounced "Briggy") is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

His credentials include a doctorate in cellular and developmental biology from Harvard University and a master's degree in industrial hygiene from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Brugge also testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about uranium issues in 2007.

A question-and-answer session will follow Brugge's talk.

Katherine Mull, executive director of the Dan River Basin Association, said she hopes Brugge's program will expand residents' knowledge on uranium issues.

"There's a lot we don't know," she said. "We're just trying to bring in experts to present good, factual information."

Mull said the association hopes to present a future program on ground and surface water migration.

Annette Ayres, a volunteer with the association, learned about Brugge after contacting a college in New Mexico while trying to find more information about the effects of uranium mining and milling.

Ayres later learned that Brugge worked on a health study about natural uranium exposure.

Asking him to speak about his study and his experiences, she said, seemed like one way to help residents find answers.

"It's a rare opportunity for residents and local officials to ask questions of a respected public health scientist who has done extensive research about this issue," Ayres said.

Saturday's program is free and open to the public.

http://www.wpcva.com/chatham/

The Foxes Voted 12-0 to Study the Hen House

A state panel voted today to study whether uranium can be safely mined in Virginia.

The Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy voted 12-0 for the study.

A state House of Delegates committee killed a study proposal in March. But the commission's chairman, Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, said that panel is probably the best group to oversee a study.

Mining supporters say roughly $8 billion worth of uranium may lie underground in Pittsylvania County in south-central Virginia. They say mining it would help address America's energy problems.

Opponents say mining could pollute waters, land and crops with radioactive waste.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-11-06-0215.html

Commission Expected to OK Uranium Study

By the Associated Press

November 6, 2008

Daily Press - Newport News,VA

RICHMOND, Va. - The state Coal and Energy Commission is expected to order a study of uranium mining in Virginia.

Uranium mining has been banned in Virginia since the 1980s. A company that owns a massive uranium deposit in Pittsylvania estimated to be worth $10 billion has repeatedly asked for a study to see if the element could be mined safely.

A legislative committee this winter rejected a scientific study of uranium mining by the National Academy of Sciences amid protests from environmentalists and some Southside residents who feared it would lead to ending the 25-year moratorium.

The commission that meets Thursday to consider the study is made up of citizens involved in the mining industry and legislators.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--uraniummining1106nov06,0,1575460.story

Southside Citizens Need to Fight Uranium

As the Coal and Energy Commission prepares to meet tomorrow, November 6, to consider authorizing a study of mining Coles Hill, SCC member Jesse Andrews has written an excellent guest editorial urging local citizens to continue to fight uranium mining.

Altavista Journal

Wednesday, November 5, 2008


The reason Virginia Uranium Inc. is not willing to engage in a debate with Southside Concerned Citizens is because the officials at VUI know that they have no answers to the real questions that would be posed in such a debate.

They are unable to answer even the most fundamental questions about the safety and health hazards uranium mining inevitably carries with it. They are not able to address these issues because the honest answers to those questions would reveal that they really don't know what they are doing.

VUI has a nice slide show for the public, which is in reality more about nuclear power plants than about uranium mining and milling. But we are not facing the possibility of a nuclear power plant at Coles Hill. We are instead facing an extremely dangerous and untried possibility, a uranium mine and mill.

And now, VUI is attempting to make an end run around the state legislature and ask the Coal and Energy Commission to conduct their "study" of uranium mining. This is the commission that did the same study in the 1980s and concluded that uranium mining would be a fine thing for Virginia. It was only through the vision and foresight of the legislators at that time that we were spared the fate of being radioactive guinea pigs.

And the Coal and Energy Commission will probably say once again that they see no problem with uranium mining and milling in Pittsylvania County. Keep in mind that this is the same group of folks who have overseen the virtual destruction of Southwestern Virginia by the coal mining industry. All anyone has to do is drive out to those counties where coal has been mined to see what a mess has been made of those places. The landscape is devastated, the communities abandoned, and the streams and rivers flowing with the runoff from the mining and processing of coal. The frightening thing is that coal is not radioactive like uranium. Coal mining is bad enough, but at least it is not deadly poison.

And it looks to me as if the people of Southside, and especially the people of Pittsylvania County and Chatham, are willing to sit by and let this happen. The majority of them just don't seem to care. That is the real tragedy to me, that complacency and ignorance are allowing this travesty to proceed, questioned only by a few of us who are labeled as tree-hugging nut cakes. Well, I for one have been called worse. And if that makes me a person who loves his home and family, then I will gladly accept that label.

The citizens of Southside will get what they deserve, based on their own actions or lack thereof.

If, after this amount of time, the people who will be most affected by having a uranium mine and mill in their backyard don't care enough to speak up, then they WILL HAVE just that, and they will have to live with it for better or for worse.

And VUI has done nothing to convince me that their uranium would enrich anyone's life but the owners of and investors in VUI.

Wake up, folks. This is your home, your family, your future. Protect it while you still can.

Jesse Andrews

Halifax

http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2008/11/05/altavista/opinion/opinion04.txt

Halifax Chamber Seeks Mining Study Input

The Halifax County Chamber of Commerce is asking residents to submit questions for an expected state study on the benefits and risks of uranium mining.

A study proposed during this year’s Virginia General Assembly session died in committee. However, Del. Clarke Hogan, R-Halifax, expects the proposal to be revived and approved during the next session.

Virginia has maintained a moratorium on uranium mining since the early 1980s, but demand for the radioactive material is growing as interest in nuclear power revives. Walter Coles Sr., president of Virginia Uranium LLC, wants to mine a deposit estimated to contain 110 million pounds of uranium on his Pittsylvania County farm near Chatham.

Many area residents and environmentalists, however, oppose uranium mining as a potential health and environmental hazard.

At Hogan’s recommendation, Halifax County Chamber officials decided to ask local residents to submit questions they would like to see in a state study. “We just feel that we want to get out in front of it,” says Chamber President Nancy Pool.

Uranium mining is controversial in Halifax because the county is downstream from Coles’ farm. Nonetheless, the Halifax Chamber has not taken a position on uranium mining or a study. “There’s a significant amount of misinformation out there, and there are also those that are totally uninformed,” Pool says. “We just want to give our local residents an opportunity to play a part in determining what is covered by this study.”

By contrast, the Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce declined Hogan’s request to gather study questions. Laurie Moran, the chamber’s president, says that her board supports the involvement of local residents but doesn’t think the organization should serve as a middle man. The chamber supports a neutral and comprehensive study of uranium mining.

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/news/article/chamber-seeks-mining-study-input/112558/

Expansion of Areva and Babcock & Wilcox Expected to Attract Skilled Workers to Lynchburg

Read this article for the reality it speaks. It speaks of "highly skilled, highly trained" workers such as "engineers and other professionals". How many of these workers already exist in the Lynchburg area? Not many. How many will be imported from other areas of the country? Most. How many jobs will this bring to Lynchburg for regular folks? Not many at all.

Lynchburg is perhaps best known as the home of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and his Liberty University. But the city is gaining a reputation for something else, one of the highest job growth rates in Virginia.

While affected by some of the woes of the national economy — unemployment is up and home sales are down — Lynchburg is adding jobs linked to a nuclear renaissance in the United States.

Two of the area’s largest employers are nuclear services companies and they’re ramping up their facilities and staff. Areva NP, a leading designer and builder of nuclear power plants around the world, has its North American headquarters in Lynchburg. Last year it submitted for federal review a new nuclear power reactor design. It plans to build an EPR (Evolutionary Pressurized Reactor) in the U.S. by 2015.

To meet that goal, Areva in Lynchburg is hiring at least 500 engineers and other professionals over the next three years, most of whom will earn more than $60,000 per year — nearly twice the region’s average household income.

Meanwhile, Babcock & Wilcox, is preparing for increased demand for heavy forgings and other components it makes for nuclear power plants. It is also growing its work force, though it has not attached a number to the expansion.

Together, the companies already employ more than 4,500 people in Lynchburg. As that number grows, regional leaders are watching for ripple effects in the housing market, in retail sales and in other high-tech businesses. Virginia Employment Commission projections say the region could add more than 7,000 jobs by 2014, reaching 117,200 jobs total.

“This is an exciting time for the nuclear industry, and we’re seeing that manifest itself in Lynchburg,” says Rex Hammond, president of the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce. The director of Region 2000’s Economic Development Partnership, Bryan David, says the expansion of the nuclear companies is a “game changer” in the region’s efforts to attract skilled workers. “These are knowledge workers,” David says. “These are the kind of highly skilled, highly trained workers that other communities are trying to attract.”

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