Sunday, August 7, 2011

Uranium Mining in Virginia

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OS11N80.htm

A mining company is seeking to mine the seventh largest Uranium deposit in the world located in Virginia.  There has been a ban on the mining of Uranium in Virginia for nearly 30 years.  The company must convince the General Assembly to end the thirty year ban on uranium mining.  The company has flown representatives to Europe to observe a closed mining operation to help with their lobbying campaign.  The National Academy of Sciences is helping analyze the effects of statewide mining of uranium near the North Carolina line.  The National Academy of Sciences study will not recommend whether or not to lift the ban.  Although this would bring hundreds of jobs to southern Virginia, it would also have an ecological impact; mining this precious ore would create lots of waste byproduct.  The main solution to this problem will be decided in the state legislature sometime in 2012.  So the fate of this proposition will be decided in less than a year.  In my opinion, there are pros and cons whether the bill is passed.  If passed, hundreds of jobs will be brought to a economically depressed area of the south.  On the other hand, if passed, this will also hurt the area environmentally.