Clean Energy Insight - Moving Energy Forward

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Virginia’s policy on uranium mining was one of several featured issues discussed at Governor Bob McDonnell’s second annual Governor’s Energy Conference in Richmond earlier this week.

A break out session was held to discuss the historical, economic and environmental issues surrounding the potential for uranium mining in the state . The panel included State Senator John Watkins, U.S. Energy Information Administration geologist Margaret Coleman, and the Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Henry Darwin.

Senator Watkins outlined the history of uranium mining in Virginia going back to the late 1970s when the largest untapped uranium deposit in the U.S. was discovered in Pittsylvania County in southern Virginia. Watkins explained how the General Assembly imposed a temporary moratorium on uranium mining in the early 1980s to allow the state time to conduct a scientific study to determine if it could be done safely in Virginia.

After multiple state studies found that uranium could be mined “with minimal risks” in Virginia, Watkins said the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission recommended that the General Assembly lift the moratorium and draft regulations to oversee the industry in the state. The moratorium was intended as “a first step, not a last step,” Watkins said.

However, Watkins went on to explain that the moratorium was never lifted because in the mid-1980’s, the companies that controlled the deposit decided not to develop it due to a downturn in the uranium market. Today, Watkins told the panel, the global uranium market is booming due to increased demand in the U.S. and major rising economic powers like India, China and Russia. “There is now a global need for uranium for use as nuclear fuel, including in the United States,” said Watkins.

Margaret Coleman from the U.S. Energy Information Administration provided an overall picture of the uranium mining industry in the U.S. and globally.

The U.S. production of uranium was at its peak during the Cold War from the 1950s to the early 1980s, Coleman said, but since then domestic production has trailed off and reliance on foreign imports have skyrocketed. Coleman alerted the panel to the fact that the U.S. now imports 92 percent of the uranium we use to fuel nuclear reactors, with almost a third coming from the Russian government.

She also pointed out that Kazakhstan is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s largest suppliers of mined uranium. Since 2008, Kazakhstan increased its share of the global uranium market from 20 percent to 33 percent. Like Russia, uranium mining in Kazakhstan is largely controlled by sometimes unreliable state-run nuclear companies. The U.S. imports 15 percent of its uranium supply from Kazakhstan.

Henry Darwin, Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, discussed the safety and environmental record of uranium mining and milling operations in his state.

Darwin described the balance Arizona strikes between economic development and environmental sustainability when it comes to the development of the state’s natural resources. Darwin spoke about the positive economic impact and the good environmental performance of mining operations in the state. In particular, Darwin drew attention to the industry’s positive track record for protecting the groundwater and other drinking water sources surrounding mining operations in Arizona.

Like the proposed Coles Hill project in Virginia, Arizona uranium mining is predominantly conducted underground and is “pretty small potatoes” compared to the huge open pit copper and other mineral mines throughout the state, Darwin said.

Darwin said that state water permits ensure that water used on site is not leaked into groundwater or surface water and is stored safely in an impoundment after being treated and tested. The impoundment is a heavily engineered and lined structure that Darwin described as “much more than just a hole in the ground.”

State air permit requirements and advanced industry practices have been very effective at ventilating the mines to protect workers from radon gas, as well as preventing dust dispersion at the sites and in the trucks that transport the ore from the site.

During the question and answer section, Senator Watkins was asked what options the General Assembly has in 2012. “If the [National Academy of Sciences] study affirms that uranium mining can be done safely in Virginia, the moratorium should be lifted, and we should direct state agencies to start writing the regulations,” said Watkins, alluding to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study due for release in December of this year.

The NAS has been studying the issue of uranium mining in Virginia for 18 months and has held numerous public fact-finding meetings across the state. Watkins mentioned that the General Assembly could first seek guidance from state regulatory agencies before drafting legislation during the 2012 Session.

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In what is being viewed as a landmark demonstration of public support among the scientific community, the President of the Virginia Health Physics Society officially endorsed efforts to mine uranium in Virginia in an Op Ed in the Chatham Star Tribune.

The Health Physics Society is an organization of nearly 6,000 scientific professionals from across the country that strives to promote best practices in radiation safety.

Carter Ficklen, the President of the organization’s Virginia chapter is a retired health physicist who worked for more than 10 years at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton and spent the last 18 years of his career at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson Lab in Newport News.

“It is the position of the Virginia Chapter of the Health Physics Society”, Mr. Fecklin writes in the Op Ed, “that uranium mining in the Commonwealth of Virginia can and should be pursued.”  “The proposed mining endeavors,” he continued, “can be carried out with minimal impact on the environmental quality of the surrounding areas while simultaneously stimulating the economy of Southside Virginia, filling a vacancy in our country’s energy needs, and reducing the United State’s dependency on foreign sources of energy.”

The largest untapped uranium deposit in the United States, known as the Coles Hill deposit, is located in Southside Virginia’s Pittsylvania County. The deposit, a veritable mother lode of nuclear energy, contains enough uranium to fuel Virginia’s entire nuclear energy demand at current levels for more than 65 years, and America’s for more than 2 years. Yet, a 25-year-old moratorium on uranium mining in the Commonwealth stands in the way of its development.

The General Assembly is waiting for the results of an independent study by the National Academy of Sciences on the public health and environmental impact before determining whether to lift the moratorium and promulgate the necessary regulations and permitting to allow the development to proceed.

A 1984 independent study commissioned by the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission determined that the Coles Hill deposit could be mined safely and without serious risks to the environment.

Concerns about the safety of uranium mining are based on “misinformation and misperceptions,” says Mr. Ficklen. In an effort to allay some of those concerns, Mr. Ficklen outlines the stringent regulatory structure that governs mining operations in the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency’s rigorous standards for water quality protect public water sources from contamination, and the tight regulation of mine tailings - the waste rock left over after mining is complete - by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission prevents the infiltration of radiation into the air, water and agriculture surrounding mining operations.

Mr. Ficklen illustrates the significant economic impact the project would entail for the economically distressed Southside region - 300-350 permanent jobs, as much as $300 million in annual economic impact and millions of dollars in local tax revenue each year.

Mr. Ficklen also argues that it is imperative to develop Virginia’s abundant uranium resources in order to reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources of uranium and to fuel the vast expansion of electricity output that is expected in the coming decades. America currently imports 86% of our uranium from foreign countries, with roughly half purchased from state-run nuclear companies in Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Uzbekistan.

“The global demand for electricity is increasing at a fast pace with the overall world generation of electricity expected to increase by 60 percent between now and 2030,” Ficklen said.

“These increases can be achieved only by the rapid construction of new generating stations, and a significant number of these new stations will be nuclear plants fueled with uranium. To support the growing dependence on nuclear power, the uranium mining industry must significantly increase its annual production and processing of uranium ore.”

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Clean Energy Insight has tried to follow the issue of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County, VA for about a year now.  Mike Bloom and I (Co-Creators of this website) both grew up in the area and are hoping that safe uranium mining can offer a much-needed economic boost.  As the debate continues, local newspapers like the Chatham Star-Tribune, the Danville Register and Bee, and the Martinsville Bulletin have published great op-eds regarding the issue that are all worthy of a read.

Recently, the head of the prestigious Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, H.L. Dodds wrote an informative letter-to-the-editor of the Star-Tribune regarding some of the misinformation on the issue being spread by anti-uranium mining activists. 

Dodds does a tremendous service to the people of the Piedmont region by offering an open and honest dismissal of some of the scare tactics that local anti-uranium mining activists have pushed on them.

Despite the intellectually dishonest anti-uranium mining campaigns, Piedmont residents are looking forward to the completion of the recently commissioned National Academy of Sciences study on the safety of the uranium mining plans as covered by groups like the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance.

Enjoy the letter from an industry expert.  (For more information on uranium mining in the Commonwealth of Virginia, see - http://www.virginiauranium.com/)

Putting uranium mining ‘misinformation’ to rest

By H.L. DODDS
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 4:56 PM EDT

As someone who has devoted my professional career to the scientific and academic pursuit of nuclear energy, I am disconcerted by the misinformation being spread by opponents of uranium mining in Virginia to stoke unwarranted fears among residents.

As Virginia examines whether to allow uranium mining, I believe it is important that citizens and policymakers have the best information available to make their decision. This is why I feel compelled to respond and put some of this misinformation to rest.

Contrary to the false assertions of some mining opponents, there is no institution better suited than the National Academy of Sciences to assess the human health and environmental impact of uranium mining in Virginia.

Residents of the state - from the Southside region to Hampton Roads - should have full trust and confidence in the National Academy as the nation’s most prestigious and respected body for scientific and technical research.

For more than a century, the National Academy has maintained an unimpeachable record for impartiality and independence from influence.

Virginia residents should also rest assured that uranium mining and milling is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States.

The industry, which has made great strides in the past few decades to improve protection of the environment, human health and worker safety, is overseen by a veritable alphabet soup of regulatory bodies - the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, to name a few.

These agencies are vigilant in enforcing their strict standards for radiation protection, air and water contamination, tailings management and worker safety.

For example, the maximum level of radiation exposure allowed by these regulators in areas surrounding uranium mines is equivalent to a small fraction - less than 10 percent - of the natural background radiation we all receive each year from our environment, homes and routine medical procedures.

A single abdominal x-ray would expose someone to five times the amount of radiation allowed by the EPA and NRC for uranium mining operations.

As the U.S. Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate Stephen Chu stated unequivocally in Pittsylvania County several months ago, modern uranium mining can be done safely and in an environmentally responsible way.

There is a large body of evidence and numerous studies which have found no link between uranium mining and the incidence of cancer and other illnesses in surrounding populations.

Several studies of uranium mining and milling communities in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado conducted by John D. Boice Jr., scientific director of the National Epidemiological Institute, found virtually no difference between cancer mortality rates in mining areas versus non-mining areas.

Opponents of mining have consistently and recklessly raised anxiety among local farmers and residents by perpetuating myths about mining activities contaminating local groundwater and agriculture with harmful levels of radiation.

These myths are based on a fundamental lack of understanding of basic science and should be put to rest once and for all.

Contrary to their assertions, it would be virtually impossible for radon gas - a byproduct of uranium - to travel distances far enough and in quantities large enough to contaminate the vegetation, air and water of areas surrounding mining activities.

The elementary physics of radon gas prevent this from happening. Because radon gas is seven times heavier than air, it impossible for it to escape more than a few feet above ground and certainly to travel distances further than a few hundred feet.

This is why radon is usually found in the basements of homes because it is too heavy to climb the stairs to the first floor.

Cherry-picking and misappropriating pieces of scientific studies to prove dubious claims is a favorite pastime of anti-nuclear advocates.

So, recent attempts to misrepresent and conflate the results of an ecological study of coal mining in West Virginia with uranium mining in Virginia should come as no surprise.

The most elementary grasp of the methods, geology, geographic location, environmental footprint and scale of the two vastly different kinds of mining would prevent any responsible person from making such a spurious comparison.

The people of Virginia - particularly those living in Southside and Hampton Roads - deserve much better.

Finally, although I now live in Tennessee, I lived in the Hampton Roads area in the 1960s while working for NASA. The area is a wonderful place to live and will continue to be so with modern day uranium mining.

H. L. Dodds is IBM professor and head of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.

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You may have read on Clean Energy Insight before about the Coles Hill, Virginia uranium deposit.  Pittsylvania County, Virginia is known for its tobacco farms, but it’s also home to the largest untapped uranium deposit in the United States.  Currently, the National Academy of Sciences is conducting an 18 month study to determine the effects that uranium mining will have on the area.

Despite an objective study currently being done to determine if uranium mining can be done safely at Coles Hill, there has been some opposition from a small group of people in Southwest Virginia.  Some anti-uranium mining groups from other states have even come in and attempted to organize opposition based on fear tactics and baseless myths.

The Virginia Energy Independence Alliance has put together a great video dispelling some of the myths being put out there by radical opposition groups.

Myth 1: There is no established need for uranium in the United States. The US exports most of its uranium.

Myth 2: Uranium test drilling at Coles Hill is leading to lead contamination in local wells.

Myth 3: Uranium has never been safely mined. Especially, in a temperate environment like that of Southwest Virginia.

Myth 4: Problems from uranium mining in Navajo communities in the 1950’s will happen again if uranium mining were started in Southwest Virginia.

Thanks to VEIA for the great video, and I hope there are more to come.  Enjoy.

Learn The Facts About Uranium from Jason Phillips on Vimeo.

( By Mike Bloom ) [Approx. Read Time: 4 minutes]
Twenty years ago, you could ask anyone from Danville, Virginia where to find a good paying job there and I bet they could name a dozen places, mostly in manufacturing, such as the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant or the Dan River Textile Plant.  Fast forward to Danville today and this is not a reality.   Along with the closure of the Dan River Plant in 2003, Danville has some of the highest unemployment numbers in the country.  Many hardworking and honest blue collar workers (including some personal acquaintances–I grew up in surrounding Pittsylvania County) have been laid off and just are hoping to find good jobs.

We’ve covered this issue before, but Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu has recently endorsed a study that may give a large boost to the Danville economy.  The study’s purpose is to determine the impact of mining the largest known uranium deposit (Cole’s Hill) in the United States, which is located about 25 minutes north Danville.  Hopefully, with the endorsement of Energy Secretary Chu, plans for the uranium mine will be enacted, providing hundreds of jobs to Danville and surrounding areas.

The President and CEO of Virginia Uranium Inc. recently thanked Energy Secretary Chu for his endorsement in the Danville Register & Bee, linked here and shown below.

Thank You, Mr. Secretary

By Norman W. Reynolds
Published: July 26, 2009

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu could not have picked a better spot than Pittsylvania County to sound his ringing call for “restarting” our nation’s nuclear energy program, as well as endorsing Virginia’s state-sanctioned study to assess the safety and feasibility of mining and milling uranium in the commonwealth.

The setting for Chu’s speech at a local farm last Saturday was just 10 miles south of the Coles Hill uranium site and 50 miles south of the City of Lynchburg, one of the most dynamic hubs of advanced nuclear technology in Virginia. Coles Hill is where Virginia Uranium proposes to mine and mill the largest known undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States.

Speaking to concerns that have been raised about mining in Virginia, Chu — a Nobel laureate in physics — explained that in “any kind of mining, whether it’s uranium, coal or nickel, or you name it, it has to be done in a way that protects the environment and protects the people. … there’s a study going on as to whether uranium mining in Virginia is going to do that. … we will wait for the results of that study.”

The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission is working with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an independent study to address concerns of Virginians about safety to people, livestock, crops and the environment.

The secretary’s position on the uranium potential at Coles Hill seemed to reflect that of his boss, President Barack Obama. When the president was campaigning in Virginia last year, The Roanoke Times carried the following report:

“According to an e-mail from his Virginia communications director, Obama supports a proposed study of the (Coles Hill) site to evaluate the potential environmental effects of mining. But, he adds, ‘Virginia has the potential to be a national leader in uranium mining, and development of uranium resources in Pittsylvania County could create hundreds of jobs in that part of the state.’”

On the larger subject of using nuclear energy to power America, Chu told the local audience of about 275 people that the Obama administration and the U.S. Department of Energy are “very supportive of restarting the nuclear power industry,” adding that he believes it can be done safely.

Secretary Chu’s comments echo those heard from various Virginia officials over the past two years, starting with the Virginia Energy Plan released in the fall of 2007. In addition to numerous references to the massive uranium deposit in Southside Virginia, the energy plan states:

“There are sufficient resources to support a uranium mining industry in Pittsylvania County with enough to meet the fuel needs of Virginia’s current generation. Significant work to assess the risk from mining and need for regulatory controls must be completed before any decision can be made whether such mining should take place.”

For those of us who have worked long and hard on the Coles Hill project, it is gratifying that the nation’s highest energy official saw fit to come to Pittsylvania County and to endorse the scientific study and to state so unequivocally the Obama administration’s high commitment to getting nuclear back on track in the United States. We look forward to moving ahead hand in hand with such enlightened thinking.

We haven’t the slightest doubt that all aspects of the nuclear cycle — from mining to operating reactors — can be done as safely as any other industrial undertaking. When the same safety issues were studied by the state 25 years ago, scientists found that under well-defined guidelines our project could go forward safely. I am confident that similar findings will be reached this go-around.

What Dr. Chu is talking about goes straight to the heart of energy independence for our nation. Yes, we need to move ahead on all fronts that make sense. But let us keep in mind that of the 55 million pounds of uranium needed to operate nuclear facilities for one year in this country, over 50 million pounds are imported. That is a frightening statistic in a world as unpredictable as the one in which we are living.

We should be grateful for the enlightened approach expressed by Secretary Chu. And we should support sensible efforts to achieve greater energy independence, including the full development of our nuclear resources.

* Reynolds is president and chief executive officer of Virginia Uranium Inc., as well as Virginia Energy Resources.

( By Carrington Dillon ) [Approx. Read Time: 2 minutes]

Last night I was invited to join the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance’s fan page on Facebook.  After checking out their notes page, I had to write about this article that I found in there.  Robert Bodnar, Professor of Geochemistry, from the greatest University in the United States–Virginia Tech, was recently quoted as saying that the Coles Hill Uranium deposit located in Southwest Virginia presents a “golden opportunity for the state, and specifically Southside Virginia.”  Professor Bodnar is currently researching the site.  As you can see from his research, he is interested in Geochemistry and fluid flow through geological deposits.  Personally, I feel that his expertise is a great match for some of the concerns raised by environmental groups in Virginia and elsewhere about the mining opportunity there.  Here is a link to the article and the excerpt from the VEIA’s Facebook news blog:

“The largest untapped uranium deposit in the U.S. found in Pittsylvania County represents a “golden opportunity for the state, and specifically Southside Virginia, to serve as the main source of [nuclear] fuel domestically and worldwide,” according to Virginia Tech professor Robert Bodnar. Professor Bodnar’s remarks appeared in an article about the uranium deposit, known as Coles Hill, in July’s Virginia Business.

Garry Kranz extolls the economic benefits the development of the deposit would bring for the ailing economy of Southside Virginia. Mining and milling the deposit would create as many as 500 new jobs with average salaries of $68,000, generate millions in annual local tax revenues and stimulate related local industries.

“Contained beneath Pittsylvania County’s loamy soil, a mere whisper from the burgs of Gretna and Chatham, lies the largest undeveloped uranium deposit known in the U.S. Estimated at nearly 120 million tons of ore, its economic impact on Virginia would be profound — were it ever to be mined.”

The Coles Hill deposit contains an estimated 120 million pounds of uranium ore, enough to fuel Virginia’s exisiting nuclear power demand for 65 years. Nuclear power currently generates almost 40% of Virginia’s electricity supply. While a 25-year-old moratorium on uranium mining and milling is preventing the development of this massive resource, the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission has tasked the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an 18-month, $1.2 million study that will make recommendations to the General Assembly as it considers whether to lift the moratorium. The National Academy of Sciences study is set to commence soon and will examine the human health and safety, environmental and socio-economic impacts of uranium mining in Virginia.”

One of the issues that Clean Energy Insight is supporting at the moment is the opportunity to mine the biggest Uranium deposit in US history in Pittsylvania County, VA (www.virginiauranium.com).  Two of the people on our team are from this area and have seen the tens of thousands of jobs that have been lost during their lifetimes in the textile and furniture industries.  By mining this deposit in Southwest Virginia, we can provide high-paying jobs and energy for our future.  It sounds like a good idea to me.

Aaron Ruby of the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance (www.virginiaenergy.org) has submitted a letter to CEI to provide more information on this issue.  Thanks a lot, Aaron.

America is too dependent on foreign uranium

The Virginia Energy Independence Alliance has a solution

America is too dependent on foreign sources of uranium.  The Virginia Energy Independence Alliance (VEIA)—a broad-based coalition of more than 500 concerned citizens, industries, associations and academia from across Virginia and beyond—wants to develop Virginia’s abundant, untapped uranium supply to break America’s dependence.

Nuclear energy supplies 20% of America’s electricity and 37% of Virginia’s.  Nuclear energy is cheaper than wind and solar, cleaner than coal, oil and natural gas, and the most efficient energy source in the world—bar none.

While America and Virginia are undergoing a nuclear renaissance that promises to vastly expand our nuclear power generation, America is increasingly dependent on unreliable foreign countries for our supply of nuclear fuel.  How could this possibly make sense? America imports 92% of the uranium we use each year to fuel nuclear energy.  Virginia imports 100%.  Where do we get our uranium?

We import anywhere from 30%-50% of our uranium from Russia.  By 2013, all the uranium we import from Russia will come from the Kremlin-run uranium enrichment company, Techsnabexport.  How will America fuel our nuclear power if the Kremlin cuts off our supply of uranium - as it did to Eastern Europe’s natural gas supply in early 2009?  This dependence is dangerous, and puts our national security and future energy supply at risk.

One solution to our dependence is right under our feet in Southside Virginia’s Pittsylvania County.  Pittsylvania County is home to the largest untapped uranium deposit in the United States.  The Coles Hill deposit—as it is known—could contain enough uranium to supply Virginia’s current nuclear power demand for the next 65 years.

As one of the most economically distressed regions of the Country, with unemployment reaching almost 15% in some areas, Southside Virginia desperately needs economic opportunity.  Mining and milling the deposit will create as many as 500 new, local jobs, generate millions in local tax dollars each year and stimulate job creation in other related local industries.<

A decades-old moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia is the only obstacle standing in the way of developing this vital resource and reaping its abundant rewards.  Fortunately, science is on our side.  Modern nuclear energy and uranium mining are safe.  The National Academy of Sciences is conducting an 18-month study of uranium mining in Virginia that will lead the way to energy independence and 500 new jobs in Southside Virginia.

To find more information and join the VEIA, visit their Web site, www.virginiaenergy.org.  You may also show your support by signing the VEIA petition at www.virginiaenergy.org/support-the-cause/sign-the-petition or by joining the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance Facebook fan page.

The solutions to our challenges are right under our feet - right here in Virginia.  Let’s use them to cure America’s dependence on foreign energy.

American Energy Independence from Jason Phillips on Vimeo.