Uranium mining faces tough challenge

GRETNA — An informed citizen base is needed to make a wise decision whether to allow uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.

Getting there may be difficult, Tod Bensen said, because there’s no way to compare uranium mining in other places around the world to Pittsylvania County.

Bensen made his presentation Saturday before a meeting of the Roanoke River Basin Association. He is an attorney and working with the Piedmont Environmental Council.

“What happens in Southside can happen throughout Virginia,” Bensen said.

Bensen said a poorly prepared study is as bad as no study at all. He said there’s no methodology to do a study for local mining purposes.

Supporters of mining should be required to show five places where mining can be done safely.

“There are no places in the Unites States where this type of mining is being done,” Bensen said.

Walter Coles, of Virginia Uranium, disagreed. Coles said there are places they can show where mining and milling can be done safely. He pointed to Canada, Pennsylvania and Florida where mining has been done safely.

“That’s what the study would do,” Coles said Sunday.

If uranium mining is allowed near Chatham, Bensen said there will be ponds that hold radioactive material for safe keeping. He said these ponds would be 930 acres and 100 feet, and places like Chatham report record-heavy rains that could flooding, sending radioactive material. The notion is the tailing would remain in the pond until the water was evaporated, but Bensen said that would not happen.

“Rainfall fall exceeds evaporation rates here,” he said.

Coles said tailings would not be out in the open, but underground in these ponds. The water in these ponds that suppress the tailings would go through a state-of-art water treatment plant to keep it safe. He said the excess used to be stored in an open pit roughly 30 years ago, but technology has changed. He said uranium is mined safely in France that has a similar climate to this part of Virginia.

“Evaporation is not an issue,” Coles said.