by Kevin Daley The U.S. Supreme Court weighed a bid to open the nation’s largest deposit of uranium to mining Monday, which defense hawks say is essential to national security and crucial foreign policy objectives. The deposit, known as Coles Hill, sits in a small Virginia town called Chatham. The commonwealth of Virginia indefinitely banned uranium extraction in 1983. Virginia Uranium Inc., a private company that opposes the ban, sued in federal court to end the ban, arguing it infringes on federal power. Uranium mining occurs in three stages: first, uranium ore is removed from ground deposits. Next, the ore is ground into a fine substance and treated with a chemical solution to separate the pure ore from other elements, called tailings, which are radioactive. This process is referred to as milling. Finally, the radioactive tailings are stored in an environmentally safe facility. The federal Atomic Energy Act (AEA) gives the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) power to regulate steps two and three, but the first step — the actual mining itself — remains under state authority. The legal question is whether Virginia’s ban on uranium mining conflicts with the AEA. Though the commonwealth retains power to regulate mining, Virginia Uranium says the law…
Read the full story
