by James A. Bacon

The National Academy of Sciences report on uranium mining in Virginia covers a lot of ground, as anyone who peruses the 290-page document can attest. But the panel of co-authors attending a public presentation of the report in downtown Richmond last night conceded that there was a lot that they didn’t know — often because their study mandate did not include evaluating specific mining sites.

As it happens, while uranium has been detected in some 55 spots around the state (as shown on the map above), only one site, the Coles Hill Farm in Pittsylvania County, has potential for commercial grade production, said Paul A. Locke, chairman of the committee and a Johns Hopkins University professor of public health. Members of the audience asked numerous questions about the feasibility of mining uranium at Coles Hill in a environmentally safe manner, but committee members could answer only with vague generalities, if at all.

Among the questions outside the scope of the NAS study:

• Will there be a large up-front cost to establish a regulatory regime for uranium mining, considering that Virginia has no existing regulatory apparatus and no existing uranium-mining industry from which to generate licensing revenue?
• Given the fact that uranium tailings remain radioactive for thousands of years, long after the mining company will cease to exist, what mechanisms exist to monitor and ensure environmental compliance of an impoundment site over the long term?
• How much radiation is likely to leak in the event of an extreme event such as an earthquake or massive flood — an amount equivalent to the radiation from a radium watch… or a Chernobyl disaster?

Further, neither Locke or other board members could point to specific Best Practices that should be implemented for uranium mining and processing at Coles Hill. Speaking generally, they said that technological and regulatory advances over the past two or three decades have vastly improved the safety and environmental health of uranium mining. No other uranium mine in the world exactly matches the Pittsylvania site in terms of geology, climate and surrounding population, but a mix-and-match approach, picking Best Practices on the basis of specific characteristics, should be feasible.

Neither did the NAS board conduct a “probabilistic risk assessment,” an exercise that would be possible only for a specific site. But Locke did acknowledge that site-specific analysis and risk assessment of Coles Hill would be critical for the mining project to move forward.

The Coles Hill ore deposit is the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States and the seventh largest in the world, according to Virginia Uranium Inc., the company lobbying to lift the moratorium on uranium mining in the state. Gov. Bob McDonnell has assembled a Uranium Working Group staffed by state employees to examine risks associated with uranium mining and analyze how they could be addressed by regulation.

The working group has scheduled four public hearings between June and November, launched a web portal and set up mechanisms to accept questions and comments from the public. Fearing that critical Working Group decisions might be made behind closed doors, environmental groups have expressed concerns about the transparency of the process.

In a letter to legislators Martin L. Kent, McDonnell’s chief of staff, responded to those concerns: “This working group is solely focused on scientific, legal, regulatory, and factual questions that need to be further examined. If the General Assembly directs the agencies to promulgate appropriate regulations to govern uranium mining, that is a separate process.”

(See PeterG’s coverage of a previous NAS meeting in Danville here.)