Report sees potential problems with uranium mining

Uranium mining in Virginia could pose threats to people and the environment, but modern mining techniques should reduce the risks, a National Academy of Sciences report said Monday.

Overall, the report said, an effort to mine uranium in Virginia faces "steep hurdles."

Those hurdles include little federal experience in recent years, and no Virginia experience, in regulating new mines, which can harm workers and the public while producing radioactive waste that can last thousands of years.

The 302-page, $1.4 million report is the work of a 14-member panel representing the academy, a respected nonprofit institution. Preparing the report took slightly more than a year.

The report laid out a rough and risky, but not impossible, road to uranium mining in Virginia. It said risks can be lessened by using modern mining practices such as managing waste underground.

"The report did not say you can mitigate all risks," said Paul Locke, chairman of the committee that wrote the report. "It said you can mitigate some risks."

Locke, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, spoke during a telephone news conference.

Virginia Uranium Inc. wants to mine and mill the radioactive metal from what it believes is a 119 million-pound deposit, worth about $7 billion, in Pittsylvania County about 145 miles southwest of Richmond. It is believed to be the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the U.S.

The report looked at the health and safety of uranium mining in Virginia, among other issues. The Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy, a legislative panel, sought the report. The commission did not ask the study group to recommend whether Virginia should allow mining.

For the mine to become a reality, the General Assembly would have to lift a 30-year moratorium, or ban, on uranium mining in Virginia.

The energy commission's uranium subcommittee heard Locke describe the report Monday afternoon.

Del. R. Lee Ware Jr., a Powhatan County Republican who is the subcommittee's chairman, said afterward that the report looked like a tough pill for industry.

"I think it raises significant questions to which we have to find adequate answers … (questions) about the wisdom of lifting the moratorium," he said.

One of the biggest questions involves caring for the long-lasting waste, or tailings, Ware said.

Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said the report raised questions for him, too, but he still leans toward allowing mining. "There is an inherent risk in everything you do."

Cale Jaffe, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which opposes ending the mining ban, was pleased with the report.

"This is a huge validation for the core concerns we have been raising all along," Jaffe said.

The report, he noted, says a flood, an earthquake or a hurricane could cause pollution at a mine. "We've had all three of those just this year," Jaffe said.

Almost all uranium mining in the U.S. has been in dry areas unlike Virginia, the report said. The study panel found no place analogous to Pittsylvania where uranium is mined.

Patrick Wales, project manager for Virginia Uranium, said the report was not an obstacle "because we have always said we are committed to building the safest uranium mine and mill in the world."

The report provides a "road map" for approving and regulating the mine, Wales said.

The report did not assess the suitability of Pittsylvania for mining, but it said the deposit there appears to be the only one in Virginia that is economically attractive.

Without proper controls, uranium mining can expose workers to harmful radiation, and the public can also be at risk from radiation in air pollution and contaminated water supplies, the report said. Health risks include cancer.

A uranium waste disposal site can be a source of contamination for thousands of years, the report said.

Uranium mining can affect streams, underground water, soil, air and living things, the report added.

"The impact … in Virginia will depend on site-specific conditions… and the efforts to mitigate and control potential impacts," the report said.

The legislature is expected to take up the issue in the session that begins Jan. 11. It's possible that lawmakers will put off for a year the decision on allowing mining.

If Virginia lifts its ban, uranium mining probably would not begin for at least five to eight years, the report said. During that time, Virginia should devise tough regulations, it said.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said state experts are studying the report. "I have long maintained that Virginia should be prudent in considering the potential lifting of the uranium mining moratorium in the commonwealth," McDonnell said in a statement. "All energy development should be pursued if it will create jobs, spur our economy, reduce Virginia's and the nation's dependence upon foreign energy supplies, and be done in a safe and responsible manner."

In a side issue, Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico, said during the Monday meeting that he had an email saying that a member of the study panel was pressured into going along with the unanimous report. Asked by reporters, Janis declined to release the email.

The member of the study panel that Janis named, metallurgical and chemical engineer Corby G. Anderson of Golden, Colo., said by phone he was pressured by the academy of sciences staff.

Anderson said he was bothered by "the process" but declined to go into detail.

Locke, the study panel's chairman, said, "I haven't seen anything, so I can't answer that question."