NEI Nuclear Notes

The following is a guest blog post submitted by Ellen Ginsberg, vice president, general counsel and secretary of the Nuclear Energy Institute. On March 1, 2013, the federal District Court of Arizona will hear oral argument on the NEI’s pending motion for summary judgment in its challenge to the Secretary of Interior ’s withdrawal of over one million acres of public lands in Northern Arizona, including promising uranium deposits, under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (“FLPMA”). NEI, joined by the National Mining Association , has argued that the Secretary of Interior lacked authority for the withdrawal in light of an unconstitutional legislative veto in the provision of FLPMA relied upon by the Secretary in issuing the withdrawal. The government has already conceded that the provision’s legislative veto is unconstitutional, leaving to be decided whether or not the remainder of the provision and the Secretary’s authority to issue such large-scale withdrawals survive...

For those of us who are interested in the developments pertaining to the domestic mining of uranium, you may find it noteworthy that perhaps the largest deposit of uranium ore in the United States is located in southwestern Virginia. There won't be any uranium mining in Virginia any time soon though, since there has long been a moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia. But, recently there have been proposals of conducting a study to determine whether uranium can be mined safely and what the potential impacts may be. Last night, the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission held a public meeting in Chatham, Virginia, simply to hear public comments pertaining to the study of the feasibility of uranium mining. From some of the comments (e.g., likening mining to "brutal rape"), you would think that the study is tantamount to actually starting mining operations. More information about the public meeting can be found here (incl. video) . Some interesting (and often outrageous) com...

...nuclear energy news you may have missed this weekend. Add Minnesota to the list of U.S. states considering nuclear as an energy solution....68% of polled executives support the building of one or more new power plants in Michigan, according to a survey conducted by Crain's Detroit Business ...Uranium mining claims are up in the U.S....Seeking to become the world's top producer of uranium, Khazakstan has signed an agreement with Japan....The National Assembly of Vietnam is expected to approve a law this month leading to the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant....French utility EdF will submit a 6.2 billion pound (12.2b USD) offer for British Energy....A piece in Psychology Today provides some much-needed context (and salve) for a public's irrational fears [see no. 9 on the list]....Web traffic to the NEI site and NEI blog hit all-time highs in April.