NEW YORK

Americans have been arguing over uranium since Hiroshima (with good reason) and there's a cloud of mythology hanging over the deposit in Southside Virginia. I want to examine some of the misinformation that's been tossed about. But first, a bit of history that doesn't go back as far as the Triassic Era.

A team of geologists discovered the uranium on the Coles family farm 1978 when they happened to be driving by and noticed that their radiation-detection instruments were going crazy. The geology was attractive, but the timing was bad. Some pumps failed in the middle of the night at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania the following year, nearly melting down the core. Nobody died and the plant still operates today, but it scared the public and created an eerie image around uranium.

The market for nuclear power (never robust) sunk into a depression from which it has never truly recovered, and the Virginia General Assembly in 1982 seemed to put the seal on the field in Pittsylvania County by passing a law that directed state agencies to draft regulations for how uranium would be mined, if ever.

Now the price is back up, the ore is again worth the price of digging, and nuclear power interests have discovered the power of a green message, pointing out that nuclear power emits almost no fumes that cause climate change. There is renewed investor interest in the tobacco field owned by the Coles family, and the General Assembly has commissioned a study from an arm of the National Academy of Sciences that will suggest generic guidelines for uranium mining in the commonwealth. This study will almost certainly be touted as an affirmative finding-- political cover for officials who want to be perceived as delivering jobs--and open the door for a pit mine.