Jack Spencer and Katie Tubb report that on a tract of private land in Virginia, 119 million pounds of uranium ore lie buried in the largest known uranium deposit in U.S. The Virginia General Assembly is currently considering whether to issue regulations that allow this resource to be developed. The debate has been overtaken by purposeful misinformation, decades of cultural bias, and manipulation by special interests. A closer analysis, however, reveals that uranium mining is conducted around the world safely and to great economic benefit. Studies show that the net economic benefit of construction and operations will yield almost $5 billion for Virginians over the life of the mine ... around 35 years.
With modern technology, efficient regulation, and 21st-century best practices, uranium mining is safe for workers, the environment, and surrounding populations. The federal government banned uranium mining on more than 1 million acres of federal land in Arizona. Virginia lawmakers are considering doing the same in their own state. Buried 1,600 feet beneath a cattle farm in southern Virginia on a tract of private land called Coles Hill are 119 million pounds of uranium ore, the largest deposit of uranium in the U.S, and the 7th largest in the world. At current uranium prices, the deposit is valued at approximately $6 billion and is enough to fuel each of U.S. 104 (now 99) nuclear reactors for two years.
Unlike in Arizona, however, the tract of land holding Virginia uranium is privately owned by a family who has lived and worked there since 1785, and the decision about whether to develop this resource will be made by in the Virginia legislature, not by Washington bureaucrats. At issue is whether the Virginia General Assembly will produce regulations that allow uranium mining. Uranium mining would create jobs and wealth in a region that badly needs it, and would provide an important energy source.
The Heritage Foundation URL hjad been been withdrawn or down: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/time-to-allow-uranium-mining-in-virginia
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