Va. uranium mining study approved

URANIUM MINING OFFERS NEW ECONOMIC ENGINE, LIKE THE SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE DEVELOPMENT

About 45 years ago Smith Mountain Dam was completed. If the SM Dam project was proposed today, anti-development organizations would scream about the pending danger, doom & devastation. Today with decades of safe operation & clean energy created from that hydroelectric power plant, all but the most wild-eyed radicals share the opinion that the Smith Mountain Dam & the lake it created have been a blessing for the area. SM Lake was created because people with vision used science & engineering to harness a natural resource & create positive change. Today Southside Virginia suffers from chronic high unemployment & the loss of traditional economic engines. As the farming & manufacturing sectors struggle, employers are gone. Today we need to again use technology to utilize our natural resources and create core jobs.  Just as hydroelectric power from SM Lake has benefited this area 45 years, in the future the same will be said of the clean & safe energy that will come from safe uranium mining at Coles Hill.  Let’s hope that antidevelopment organizations don’t drown out the voices of reason.

John M. A. Donelson
McLean

REPLY:

In my previous post, I pointed to Southside Virginia Against Uranium Mining, where they pointed out that the author of the above letter is Vice President of Marketing & Sales at USEC Inc., the company that enriches uranium in the only U.S. enrichment plant (Paducah, KY). Now that we know the author’s identity, allow me to speak to his letter:  Mr. Donelson, you idiotically compare Smith Mountain Dam to open-pit uranium mining.  This comparison is like trying to prove that cutting open one’s arteries and a mere hang nail are exactly the same. SML is a hydroelectric dam. Uranium mines are mined specifically for a deadly radioactive substance. Boaters & fisherman use SML; I would like to invite you, Mr. Donelson, to boat & fish in the tailings ponds created for open-pit uranium mines. In fact, I’d like to invite you to live in Chatham for the duration of the mining at Coles Hill & drink our well water at the same time. You also wrote, “It is certain that if the Smith Mountain Dam project was proposed today, anti-development organizations would scream about the pending danger, doom, and devastation.“

Mr. Donelson, your assumption that people would put up the same fuss about a HE dam as they would about an open-pit uranium mine is completely ludicrous. Granted, dams are not good, but uranium mines are far worse, being deadly to all living organisms and for centuries thereafter. A dam may not ruin the countryside (in fact, it sometimes enhances the countryside, but at the expense of archaeologists, native flora & fauna and the property owners who must relocate). Many people enjoy SML today & most folks don’t even know the history of how it came to be. On the other hand, many people know & remember the history of uranium mining in their county. Unlike SML where property values have kept pace with valued properties nationwide, an open-pit uranium mine (even the suggestion of such a mine) will cause (and is already causing) property values to drop. With the advent of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County, VA, properties will become totally worthless. It will take many centuries after mining is completed for people to use that land again. Usually, it gets foisted off on the local folks as soon as possible, touted as a wonderful “gift” to the community that keeps on giving: radioactive campgrounds, perhaps, or hiking trails.

While I abhor dams, I can live with them more so than I can live with open-pit uranium mines. I don’t consider myself wild-eyed any more than I would consider you as being insane, but you’re pretty damn close. The reason I feel this way, Mr. Donelson, is that you use the same ol’ same ol’ economic “poor Southside” reasoning for uranium mining. Not one area in the WORLD has ever known a safe uranium mine. The majority of Virginia voices have spoken out against this mine, even in the face of unemployment and poor economy.  Are those people “wild-eyed,“ or are they educated and sane people who want to preserve their health, the health of their children, their property values, their livestock and the farm products they sell across this nation? I would say Mr. Donelson you are the one who is being unreasonable AND deceitful. Your argument is FULL of holes. You also have not been forthcoming about your real identity or the reason why you wrote this letter. This is the age of transparency, Mr. Donelson, and you’ve been busted. You’re no different than the greedy snake oil salesmen of the past, but the majority of Virginians are not buying your argument or your bull-crap.

APPOMATTOX POSTEROUS

Author: Lawrence Williams

LONDON (27 MAY 2009)

THE RECENT ARREST BY KAZAKHSTAN’S SECURITY FORCES OF THE FORMER HEAD OF THE COUNTRY’S STATE URANIUM COMPANY IS RAISING ALARM BELLS AMONG FOREIGN COMPANIES WHICH HAVE INVESTED IN URANIUM DEVELOPMENT THERE.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the head of the state uranium mining company KazAtomProm (along with seven of his senior executives) was arrested on the grounds of making illegal sales of the country’s uranium resources to overseas entities, AND CANADIAN HEADQUARTERED URANIUM ONE (TSX AND JSE: UUU), WHICH HAS A 70% INTEREST IN A JOINT VENTURE IN KAZAKHSTAN that owns the Akdala Uranium Mine (which is currently in operation) and the South Inkai Uranium Project, which commenced pre-commercial production in 2007, has been named as one of the companies concerned.  Uranium One also has a 30% interest in another Joint Venture in Kazakhstan that is developing the Kharasan-1 uranium project which was officially opened last month.

These projects were primarily negotiated by UrAsia Energy which merged with SXR Uranium One to form the present Uranium One in 2007.

OTHER OVERSEAS COMPANIES INVOLVED IN KAZAKH URANIUM WHICH COULD BE AFFECTED BY THE FALLOUT FROM THE ARRESTS INCLUDE AREVA , CAMECO and a consortium of Japanese companies which are co-owners with Uranium One and KazAtomProm of the Kharasan project, as well as Chinese and Russian organizations.

RADIO FREE EUROPE IS SAYING THAT THE ARREST OF DZHAKISHEV AND HIS KAZATOMPROM ASSOCIATES IS CONNECTED WITH THE CASE OF BUSINESSMAN MUKHTAR ABLIYAZOV WHOSE BTA BANK WAS NATIONALIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND A CRIMINAL CASE WAS LAUNCHED INTO HIS ALLEGED FINANCIAL MISDEEDS EARLIER THIS YEAR. ABLIYAZOV AND OTHER BANK OFFICIALS LEFT KAZAKHSTAN TO AVOID ARREST.

SO FAR NO COMMENTS HAVE BEEN FORTHCOMING FROM ANY OF THE WESTERN COMPANIES WHICH MAY BE AFFECTED BY THE FALLOUT FROM THE ARRESTS.

IF NUCLEAR POWER IS SUPPOSEDLY SO DANGEROUS AND EXPENSIVE, HOW DOES THE INDUSTRY KEEP GOING, IF IT’S SOOOO BAD?

The nuclear industry relies on lies and obfuscations to hide its true effect on humanity from curious or prying eyes. ANYONE who begins to understand the truth is immediately labeled an “activist” even if they base every comment they ever make on scientific principles which the pro-nukers cannot and WILL NOT ANSWER. People who are labeled “activists” are soon kicked out of their jobs, so that they can no longer be considered experts who are current in the field. They are ridiculed, and destroyed financially. The “debate” over nuclear power—the one a democratic people SHOULD have had—NEVER HAPPENED, and next thing we knew, there were more than 100 operating nuclear power plants in America alone. One that was gutted by fire more than 30 years ago, on March 22, 1975 (and nearly melted down, but didn’t, or you would know its name) was reconstructed and restarted recently (June 2007). How? Because the Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns the Browns Ferry site, is as corrupt an organization as you will find on the face of the earth. What keeps the industry going is government contracts, government subsidies, government insurance, and tax breaks. The government feeds BILLIONS into the industry, financing the “research and development” of new reactor designs, and the training the commercial reactor operators through the military reactor program. Research reactor institutes are often controlled jointly by the industry and by the government. It’s self-perpetuating.

But the biggest break the industry gets is, of course, the fact that if you or your children or loved ones get cancer or leukemia, it COULD be due to anything, NO MATTER HOW CLOSE you live to a reactor (or a uranium mine), and no matter how many people around you SEEM to be dying as well. To make matters worse, after a meltdown, most people with radiation-caused illnesses will never be paid a red cent by any insurance company, the reactor or mine owners or operators, or any local, state or federal entity. Check your homeowner’s insurance policy if you have one. Nuclear reactor accidents are specifically excluded! And you need look no further than the nuclear industry’s under-funded, federally-mandated minimalist insurance policy known as The Price-Anderson Act to KNOW that no citizen will be paid their due if they survive after an accident. You’ll get fractions of a penny on the dollar if you live to collect anything at all. You’ll be called stupid for living so close to a reactor, or paranoid for thinking that an accident “X” miles away caused YOUR cancer. “X” could be a little as 11 miles or less!

IS THE THREAT FROM TERRORISM REAL?
YES, IT’S REAL. There have been NUMEROUS threats from terrorists against OUR nuclear power plants. Books by scientists, written more than 30 years ago, which were ignored then and are ignored now, warned America of the threat. The threat is worse now: The militants are at least as determined as ever, the targets contain MORE radioactive materials than ever, the populations around the uranium mines and reactors are vastly greater, and the explosive power and penetrating power of the weapons that might be used are both SIGNIFICANTLY greater. But the nuclear reactors are the same, only older! A half-dozen armed guards per reactor won’t stop ANY determined foe. Similarly, the Transportation Security Administration is incapable of guarding the skies completely, especially from RENTED BUSINESS JETS which could be easily hijacked and flown into a reactor or its spent fuel, with devastating results. The Pentagon does NOT patrol the airspace above each reactor and even if it did, they couldn’t stop the wide variety of incoming flying objects that can exist—missiles, small and large planes, etc. They can’t stop boat-launched small nuclear weapons attacks against our coastal reactors. They couldn’t stop 9-11—not even close. The military has NOT built anti-aircraft missile embankments around any U.S. nuclear power plants or even established permanent “no-fly” zones around the plants. And even if they did, it probably wouldn’t help against a determined, 9-11 “inspired” foe.  SHUTTING THE REACTORS DOWN PERMANENTLY IMPROVES OUR SURVIVABILITY SIGNIFICANTLY. NOTHING ELSE MAKES ANY SENSE AT ALL.

NO “NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE” IN AMERICA:  FRENCH, FINNISH, AND U.K. EXPERIENCES HOLD LITTLE RELEVANCE FOR U.S. - OTHER THAN AS CAUTIONARY TALES

WASHINGTON, May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/—Lobbyists and utility company officials who claim that the United States is missing out on a so-called “Nuclear Renaissance” have their facts wrong about what is going on in Europe with nuclear reactors, according to University of Greenwich Professor of Energy Studies Stephen Thomas.

The U.K. energy expert said that, not only is nuclear power in France, Finland, and Great Britain now plagued with problems, but almost nothing that is positive about the experiences in those nations would translate to the United States. Thomas is the author of “Areva and EDF: Business Prospects and Risks in Nuclear Energy” (March 2009) and the co-author of “The Financial Crisis and Nuclear Power” (February 2009).

Thomas said: “We’ve been waiting in vain on a ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ in Europe since the early 1990s. Even before the recent collapse in energy prices and the financial downturn, it was clear that all of the talk of a new resurgence in the prospects for nuclear reactors was just that: talk. It is for this reason that I find it so odd that the case for more nuclear power is being built in the United States on an entirely mythical notion of some kind of international ‘race’ that the U.S. supposedly is losing. In reality, the nuclear power industry in Europe is in the midst of the same kind regulatory and financial uncertainty that makes the future of the industry murky at best in this nation.“

The lesson for the United States, according to Thomas, is that there is no international race on nuclear reactors to be won or lost. He explained: “U.S. efforts to revive nuclear ordering, begun in 2002, were originally expected to get a new plant on-line by 2010. Even if there are no further delays, the earliest a new plant could be on-line is now looking closer to 2020. In the meantime, the nuclear industry has upped its demands for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to build demonstration plants from about $5 billion to more than $100 billion. The prospect that these demonstration plants would lead to unsubsidized ordering now looks fanciful. Far from leaving the U.S. lagging behind Europe in reviving nuclear power, the delays in the U.S. program may allow the Obama administration to free up resources to be channeled to energy efficiency and renewable energy that are able to meet the urgent environmental and security-of-supply issues that the U.S. faces.“

WAKE UP, HOMER SIMPSON!!!!! You probably think 8-track tapes are AU COURANT!