John Douglass Praises Bi-State Commission Resolution on Uranium Mining

Douglass, Hurt Spar Over Uranium Mining.
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/aug/01/douglass-hurt-spar-over-uranium-mining-ar-2101728/

Virginia Legislature is Soon Expected to Consider Lifting the Ban.
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/aug/01/douglass-hurt-spar-over-uranium-mining-ar-2101728/

Hurt Votes Against Farm Dust Amendment Including Uranium Mining in the Clean Air Act. 
H.AMDT.905 Amendment (A005) offered by Mr. Waxman. (consideration: CR H8286-8287, H8292-8293; text: CR H8286) 
Amendment sought to require that particulate pollution produced from mining activities is not defined as nuisance dust and remains subject to the Clean Air Act.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll909.xml
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR01633:@@@S

Hurt Stands to Gain Personally and Politically from Uranium Mining in the District.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/266880

Hurricanes and Earthquakes Make Uranium Storage Risky.
In an exhaustive study of uranium mining released in December, the National Academy of Sciences raised some red flags… In its report, the academy said Virginia would face "steep hurdles" in protecting the health of its people and environment if the moratorium was lifted… His concerns, Peter DeFur, a research associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University] said, are based in part on recent natural disasters in Virginia — an earthquake, tornadoes, a derecho — and how they might disturb huge amounts of radioactive waste that would be left behind at the mining operation for decades. http://m.roanoke.com/mapp/story.aspx?arcID=312130

Transportation Risks of Uranium Mining. 
Like coal produced in Southwest Virginia, the uranium mined in Pittsylvania County needs to be transported through populated areas to fuel nuclear power generation plants, the ultimate purpose of uranium mining. While transporting coal through populated areas may be low-risk or risk-free, transporting radioactive material via Interstate 81 and other major highways, or perhaps via railroad, will be a rather high-risk operation
http://m.roanoke.com/mapp/story.aspx?arcID=311620

Wismut Mining in Germany Illustrates Severe Risk of Contaminations. 
During the active mining period, large amounts of air contaminated with radon and dust were blown into the open air, for example 7426 million m3 (i.e. 235 m3/s) of contaminated air alone at Schlema-Alberoda in 1993. The water was released into rivers and creeks. In the sediments of rivers in the Ronneburg area, concentrations of radium and uranium around 3000 Bq/kg were found, indicating up to 100-fold increases over natural background [Hanisch1994. The quartz dust and radon were responsible for the two most serious work related diseases, silicosis and lung cancer. By beginning of 1997, 14,592 cases of silicoses and 5,275 of lung cancer were officially recognized as work-related disease for miners at the Wismut. It is estimated that there were 200 deadly accidents between 1946 and 1948 and 376 in the years between 1949 and 1964, including 33 miners being killed in a fire on a mine in Schlema in 1955. The total number of deadly accidents including the estimates for the early years is 772. Large amounts of groundwater were pumped out of the mines, to keep them dry during mining operations. The German government estimates the clean-up period at 10 – 15 years, at costs of US$ 9.3 billion. Since no reserves were saved by the former operators, the clean-up has to be funded from the German Federal budget. Until end-1998, 44% of this budget has been spent already.
http://www.wise-uranium.org/uwis.html