nuclear-news

Chasm wide on Grand Canyon uranium mining, GOP tries to stop  moratorium, Washington Times, By Valerie Richardson, 3 Nov 11 The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide and a mile deep, which is roughly the size of the gap between the Obama administrationand Western Republicans on the issue of uranium mining in Northern Arizona.Western Republicans are fighting to stop Interior Secretary Ken Salazarfrom slapping a 20-year moratorium on any new mining claims for yellowcake uranium on 1.1 million acres of land around the Grand Canyon National Park. A two-year ban instated in 2009 is scheduled to expire in December.

A House Natural Resources subcommittee held a hearing Thursday on the Republican-sponsored Northern Arizona Mining Continuity Act of 2011, which would block the effort to ban uranium mining in the region.

Robert Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said at the hearing that the area is too sensitive to accommodate expanded mining. The Colorado River, which runs through the canyon, delivers water to 26 million people in seven states, raising the stakes for any contamination that might result from a mining mishap.

He said that a U.S. Geological Survey report evaluated 1,014 water samples from 428 sites in the region and found that about 70 sites had contamination levels exceeding the primary or secondary maximum for some elements, including uranium…

“I’m here to see if anything can be accomplished in the area of nuclear disarmament before the elections,” Douglas said in our interview. “You get a message constantly that nothing is going to be done between now and [the election]… but I don’t think we can wait around for a year and half.”

Calling himself a “messenger of peace” in the area of disarmament, Douglas said he was “try[ing] to see if Congress won’t calm down a little bit” in its efforts to cut funding for nuclear non-proliferation programs. Continue reading →