Virginia Energy Resources Inc (fka VEGYF)

[Tommy]

$VEGYF - VUI.V - Virginia Keeps Ban on Uranium Mining

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323926104578276301077546238.html

By CAMERON MCWHIRTER

A bill to lift a decades long ban on uranium mining in Virginia was withdrawn Thursday just before a state Senate panel vote where it was expected to be defeated.

The bill, pulled by its sponsor, Republican Sen. John C. Watkins, was backed by a company that wanted to mine an estimated $7 billion worth of uranium from a farm in southern Virginia.

A coalition of environmentalists, farmers and municipal leaders opposed the bill, saying mining uranium would endanger the environment and water supply.

Supporters of lifting the ban say any radioactive pollution caused at the proposed mine could be contained. They say the mine would have bolstered the region's economy and helped make the U.S. energy-independent.

The Senate's Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee had been set to vote on the bill Thursday afternoon. Mr. Watkins, after withdrawing the bill, said in a statement it was "very frustrating to me that I have been unable to convince some of my colleagues that this [uranium mining] effort can be accomplished safely and economically here in Virginia."

The bill's withdrawal marks the end, at least for this year, of efforts by Virginia Uranium Inc. to mine the largest known deposit of undeveloped uranium in the U.S. The company estimates the deposit contains at least 119 million pounds of uranium oxide—which when processed is used to fuel nuclear reactors—beneath part of a 3,500-acre farm outside Chatham, Va.

"We're not discouraged," said Patrick Wales, Virginia Uranium's project manager. He added that persuading legislators could take several legislative sessions.

Geologists have known of the deposit outside Chatham for years. But in 1982, the General Assembly imposed a moratorium on uranium mining. In 2006, the family that owns the farm where the ore is located formed Virginia Uranium and began pressing the state to lift its ban.

"There is no way to spin this, other than to see it for what it is, a direct repudiation of the plan that VU [Virginia Uranium] has set forth," said Cale Jaffe, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is part of the coalition against the bill.

Robert Bodnar, an economic geologist at Virginia Tech who has studied the site, partly with Virginia Uranium funding, said: "In this case, the paranoia and the unfounded fears and concerns have won out over good, hard science."

Write to Cameron McWhirter at [e-mail]