Iran is ready to exchange its low-enriched uranium with a higher enriched material, but only on its own soil, to guarantee the West follows through with promises to give the fuel, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Iran’s foreign minister said Monday that Tehran may agree to ship part of its stockpile of low enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment in response to a U.N.-drafted plan.

A study of uranium mining in Virginia is moving forward, to the dismay of some mining opponents. A subcommittee of the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy approved the study yesterday after fine-tuning the issues to be studied. The study arises from a proposal by Virginia Uranium Inc. to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County in south-central Virginia.

A Virginia Tech geologist recently was awarded a $60,000 grant to study the Coles Hill uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County near Chatham. A mineral research grant from the U.S. Geological Survey is the first from the federal government for studying this deposit and will fund “a very focused study to determine the age of the uranium mineralization,“ said Robert Bodnar, geochemistry professor at Tech.

DANVILLE—A Pittsylvania County supervisor hopes federal and state agencies will look into elevated lead levels at home wells near Coles Hill, where Virginia Uranium Inc. has done exploratory drilling in hopes of one day mining uranium. Chatham-Blairs Supervisor Hank Davis has proposed a resolution for the Board of Supervisors that would ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Health to investigate higher amounts of lead in home wells in the Sheva area near Coles Hill.

As a former commander of Norfolk Naval Base and a nuclear weapons officer who worked on Russian atomic secrets at the National Security Council, Joe Bouchard knows something about uranium. As a Ph.D. and Democratic delegate from Virginia Beach who works on environmental and scientific issues on two important House committees, Bouchard also knows something about the politics of uranium.

Opponents of a uranium-mining study seem to want to have their (yellow) cake and eat it, too. On the one hand, they decline to contribute funds to pay for the study. On the other, they suggest that because uranium-mining interests might underwrite it, the study might be biased. That seems unlikely. The examination of whether to repeal Virginia’s moratorium on uranium mining will be performed by the National Academy of Science, a widely respected independent agency. Authorization for the study comes from a subcommittee of the state’s Coal and Energy Commission, which acted after the General Assembly failed to approve an earlier proposal for a state-financed study.

A Virginia panel is giving the go-ahead to a study on opening the state to uranium mining and likely bankrolled by the industry—raising fears that the research will be weighted in favor of proponents. A subcommittee of the Coal and Energy Commission yesterday approved a tentative outline of the study by the National Academy of Science, which would focus on safety, environmental and health concerns. A separate examination of the financial and economic impact of mining also is planned.

Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic candidate for governor, says job creation shouldn’t be a taxing experience for business. Traveling yesterday to Danville, where unemployment is 16.8 percent, he outlined a pilot program under which the state would provide tax relief for firms that generate new jobs in ailing areas. McAuliffe said Virginia should help such businesses pay their federal payroll taxes for hiring more workers or raising employees’ salaries.

Responding to residents’ concerns that uranium mining in Pittsylvania County would be an environmental disaster, county leaders are urging a state commission studying the issue to state unequivocally whether mining would cause damage or harm. County supervisors, in a resolution passed Monday night, said they don’t want the commission’s study merely to provide an analysis of the costs and benefits of uranium mining.

Byron Motley’s family has lived here in Pittsylvania County for generations. The hay farmer can still look across the narrow blacktop road in front of his house and see the oak tree beneath which his father was born. But Motley is suddenly pondering a move to North Carolina. Likewise, Phillip Lovelace, the ninth generation in his family to live in Pittsylvania, is considering moving to South Carolina. “I was born in a farmhouse here, and my daddy paid the doctor who delivered me three ducks and a jar of blackberry preserves,“ the 57-year-old cattle farmer said. “I’ve pretty much been in this neighborhood all my life.“

A proposed uranium mine in Pittsylvania County has political pitfalls.

Proposed uranium mining presents another environmental issue that could stir debate in the coming year. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said a study to assess the feasibility and environmental impact of mining a massive uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County should go forward, as long as a credible group is doing the study. “They’re talking about the National Academy of Sciences—very credible—I don’t think there’s any reason not to do it,“ Kaine said in an interview.

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency issued tough new regulations for airborne lead particulates. The old standard, 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air, has been revised sharply downward to 0.15.

Last fall Gov. Tim Kaine warned that state revenue appeared to be falling short of projections. He indicated that Virginia might have to cut spending, lay off employees, and tap the rainy-day fund. Certain Republicans accused him of scare tactics. They denied the situation was dire. And they ridiculed his suggested use of the jack salted away for a rainy day. (In 2007, the official line from the Bush administration insisted that the economy was in better shape than the naysayers claimed. Virginia Republicans obeyed.)