Members of a state commission preparing to oversee a study of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County were urged by area residents last night to make sure the study fully addresses the health effects related to mining the nuclear fuel. Residents also vowed to fight any legislative attempt to use the study to overturn a 27-year-old statewide moratorium on uranium mining.

The public will get a chance next month to suggest how uranium mining should be studied. A state panel organizing a study decided yesterday to hold a hearing in Pittsylvania County in early January. The panel, a subcommittee of the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy, did not set a date during the group’s meeting in the General Assembly Building.

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.