nuclear-news

Radioactive danger in flooding – report on uranium proposal for Pittsylvania County

flooding increases the risk of radioactive contamination, whether it’s a catastrophic event or long-term “chronic” release of contaminants into the water,

Report highlights flooding at proposed uranium site, News Advance 29 Sept 11 An environmental group is calling for more water studies of a proposed uranium site before legislators debate whether to lift the state moratorium on uranium mining.

The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League released a report Monday that documented flooding at the Coles Hill site in Pittsylvania County, where Virginia Uranium Inc. would like to mine a 119-million-pounduranium deposit. Such flooding increases the risk of radioactive contamination, whether it’s a catastrophic event or long-term “chronic” release of contaminants into the water, said defense league community organizerAnn Rogers.

Rogers would like legislators to postpone voting on lifting the ban for another year or until a comprehensive water study can be completed. The General Assembly is expected to take up the issue as early as January 2012.

“They’re asking the state to lift the moratorium without offering a real analysis of what we’re getting,” Rogerssaid.

The report shows maps of three Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zones at the Coles Hill site connected to Mill Creek, Whitethorn Creek and the Banister River. It highlights historic floods and shows photos of roads flooded in the Coles Hill area in November 2009…..

Virginia Beach had already commissioned a study to see how, in a worst-case scenario, contaminants could flow downstream to its water supply. Most of the concern surrounds how well tailings, a radioactive waste byproduct of uranium milling, would be contained.

The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League questioned how long a tailings impoundment could really last, given radioactivity lasts thousands of years, Rogers said. She worries about the long-term leaking of contamination into the water system and how the risk — or perception of that — could affect local agriculture.

September 30, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA