Va. to look at social impacts of uranium mining

[phantom power]

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia is moving forward with a study to size up the economic and social impacts of lifting a ban on uranium mining to tap a Southside deposit estimated at 110 million pounds.

The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission is seeking proposals to conduct the study, which is scheduled to be completed by December 2011. Unlike a separate study, which is examining technical aspects of uranium mining on a statewide level, the socio-economic study will be focused on "the region surrounding Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County, Virginia," according to the commission.

Both studies are intended to guide the General Assembly on whether it should end a 1982 ban on mining uranium in Virginia.

Virginia Uranium Inc. has proposed mining the deposit located beneath several hundred acres it owns in Chatham, near the North Carolina border. The company has estimated the uranium's value at anywhere from $7 billion to $10 billion.

http://www.wtkr.com/news/dp-va--uraniumstudy1002oct02,0,4047109.story