Motherlode in Virginia

The US needs energy.
We keep getting told that coal and oil cause "greenhouse" gases and the world will come to an end if we continue to use them.
Wind and Solar energy ARE NOT enough.
Hmmmm, since the James won't be dammed anytime soon, that leaves nuclear energy as our only feasible alternative.
Oh, wait, we have to import uranium from Canada and Australia. And our dear friends in the Russian Federation. So, yet again we're stuck with foreign suppliers........what, we don't have to import uranium? We have uranium in Virginia? Ooohhh, we can't mine it. We can process it into nuclear fuel in Virginia, but, we can mine it.....yeah, that makes sense.

Max Shulz in the Wall St. Journal sheds some light on the situation...

In Pittsylvania County, just north of the North Carolina border, the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States -- and the seventh largest in the world,...
(Now that's a glowing report.)

Virginia is one of just four states that ban uranium mining. The ban was put in place in 1984, to calm fears that had been sparked by the partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island outside of Harrisburg, Pa. in 1979. (That makes sense, we still process it and have plants, but we can't mine the ore that CAN'T melt down...)

Since Virginia is already a nuclear-friendly state that properly manages the risks of nuclear power, what sense does it make for the state to ban the safest step in the nuclear fuel cycle?

Gov. Kaine supports allowing the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether mining could be done safely....

While there are legitimate concerns about any sort of mining, whether it be uranium, coal, or gold, proper studies should be conducted. There are other uranium mines in the US. Horrible, cataclysmic pollution and degradation WOULD be in the news. Proper procedures, of course would be enforced, if only by those living in the vicinity of a mine.

Or do you want our energy policies to continue to be run by people like this:
"There will be a dead zone within a 30 mile radius of the mine," he says with a courtly drawl. "Nothing will grow. Animals will die. The radiation genetically alters tissue. Animals will not be able to reproduce. We'll see malformed fetuses." Mr. Dunavant doesn't believe the governor has an open mind on the issue. He calls Mr. Kaine, "our 'supposed green' governor" and says that the "only thing green about him is his love of money." Coles Hill "is all about greed," he says. "It's criminal activity as far as I'm concerned."