A proposed uranium mine in Southside Virginia could be a boon to the state's economy and the nation's security — or an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
Experts laid out starkly differing visions during a forum Thursday at the University of Richmond.
The 2012 General Assembly is expected to consider lifting a 30-year moratorium on mining uranium, which is used to fuel nuclear power plants.
"It's very likely to become the biggest issue" during the session that begins Jan. 11, said Bob Gibson, executive director of the nonpartisan Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. He moderated the forum.
Virginia Uranium Inc. wants to mine and mill the radioactive metal in Pittsylvania County, about 145 miles southwest of Richmond.
The company says a 119 million-pound deposit, worth about $7 billion, lies underground near Chatham. The mine and mill would create more than 300 jobs, according to the company.
Opponents include environmentalists, the Virginia chapter of the NAACP and Virginia Beach officials. Beach officials fear that pollution from the mine could reach rivers leading to the city's drinking water.
A hurricane or other big storm eventually will strike the mine site, and the question is whether Virginia will have strong enough protections to limit pollution, said Joe Bouchard, a former Democratic legislator from Virginia Beach and a former Navy nuclear weapons officer.
"It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when" a natural disaster hits the site, Bouchard said.
Environmentalists fear that allowing mining in Pittsylvania would open the door for mining in other areas believed to harbor uranium, including Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison and Orange counties.
But Robert J. Bodnar, a Virginia Tech geochemistry professor, said he would like to see numerous uranium mines operating and producing tax revenue in Virginia.
Producing uranium at home helps reduce reliance on imports, thus aiding national security, Bodnar said. And unlike the burning of fossil fuels, nuclear power is not linked to global warming, he added.
"I don't think finding more deposits (in Virginia) is necessarily a bad thing," Bodnar said.
Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council, a conservation group, said the nation needs to move to energy sources such as wind and solar.
"We don't lack alternatives to foreign oil," Miller said. "We lack imagination."
Patrick Wales, project manager for Virginia Uranium, said modern mining techniques and yet-to-be-written state regulations would ensure a safe operation in Pittsylvania.
"Today's uranium industry is safer than countless other industries" including forestry and farming, Wales said.
A National Academy of Sciences panel is studying the safety of uranium mining in Virginia. Its report should be out Dec. 1.
Environmentalists said Thursday that the next assembly session is too early to take up the issue. The public will need several months to absorb the report, they said.
About 240 people turned out for the forum, sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia.
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