The rising price of uranium may lead to more than a renewed interest in mining North America’s richest uranium reserves in Pittsylvania County. AREVA, the French nuclear power giant, is “talking with Virginia officials” about a location for the uranium enrichment plant, according to the Danville Register & Bee. And Lynchburg is at the top of the list.
According to a “Walter Cole,” identified only as a resident of Chatham, “AREVA has visited Virginia and they’re interested in building an enrichment plant, and it would be the second one in the United States, and it’d cost $2 billion to $3 billion.” Not only is Lynchburg located just up U.S. 29 from the Chatham uranium deposits, AREVA’s Framatome ANP already fabricates nuclear fuel rods there.
This story is huge: It’s looking increasingly likely that nuclear power will become the catalyst for the economic revitalization of Central/Southside Virginia, a region whose traditional mill-town economy has been devastated by globalization and the decline of the tobacco/cigarette industry. (See “Virginia: A World-Class Player in Nuclear Power?”) Let’s hear it for nuclear power, electric cars, energy independence and a reduction in fossil fuel pollution!
