Regional
(2010-06-30)
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WELD COUNTY, CO
(KUNC) -
Though President Obama and industry officials are pushing for more nuclear energy, it remains controversial, particularly for people living near uranium deposits.
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"People have a misunderstanding about uranium and nuclear power in general," says Powertech CEO Richard Clement. "People conceive of uranium being a major radioactive substance where if you just become associated with it you're going to be radiated and killed."
Powertech hopes to mine uranium in Nunn, a small northern Colorado town. But residents are rallying against mining in their community, citing environmental concerns.
Battling Public Perception
Robin Davis laughs as she describes how the town's water tower - painted with "Watch Nunn Grow" - gave residents the idea for an anti-uranium-mining campaign.
"We got to thinking about the water tower in Nunn, and so we said, well, we don't want to watch Nunn glow," Davis says. "And that's how we came up with our bumper stickers. We did a Hell no we won't glow,' bumper sticker, also."
The image of uranium as a major radioactive substance, often perpetuated by movies and television, just isn't true, Clement says. Nuclear fuel releases tiny particles called alphas, but Clement says they can't penetrate air more than a foot around them.
Powertech wants to deploy an increasingly popular process called in situ to recover uranium.
"People just don't understand what we're trying to accomplish here, really it's a very non invasive type of development," Clement says. A fire hose would be injected a couple hundred feet below the ground to break up the uranium, and pump it back to the surface.
'Watch Nunn Glow'
Despite the bumper stickers, Robin Davis says her biggest fear is not radiation, but ground water contamination.
"I know that the industry says, Oh, you're creating a fear factor,'" Davis says. "Well, you know, the reality is, it is scary to think about having things in your water. And if people can latch onto, you know, Hell no we won't glow,' we don't want to watch Nunn glow, it's about marketing really."
History supports Davis' worries. During the last uranium mining boom of the 1970s, open pit mining sickened workers. And poisonous by-products like arsenic polluted some rivers and drinking water supplies across the southwest.
"Undoubtedly I think that any uranium mine right now has a problem because some of the past record," says K.K. Duvivier, a retired geologist who teaches environmental law at the University of Denver.
Rewriting the Rules
Colorado environmental officials appear poised to make sure those things won't happen again, as uranium mining appears poised for a comeback. The state is currently rewriting regulations to protect groundwater from toxic runoff. That could be one more road block in front of President Obama's push for more nuclear power. But State Department of Natural Resources spokesman Theo Stein says the intent is not to stop uranium mining, but make sure it's done safely.
"Groundwater in that part of the state is precious and limited, and it's important to make sure that any industrial activity does not adversely impact that groundwater," Stein says.
But DU's K.K. Duvivier believes the new regulations might be sending the wrong message.
"I think the regulations should be strict, but I don't think they should try to drive this company out of the state," she says.
Duvivier says companies around the U.S. are beginning to show that new technologies will allow uranium to be mined safely, with a minimal footprint. Nuclear power, along with natural gas, is often billed as a clean-burning fuel that can be brought on line when the wind stops blowing or the sun shining. And make no mistake nuclear energy advocates like Powertech's Richard Clement are mobilizing their PR machines.
"Nuclear power is the cleanest method of generating electricity that exists. It does not generate SO2, it does not generate CO2, it is essentially emission free," Clement says.
Is Nuclear "Clean"?
But at least for now, that pitch continues to be met with skepticism from a lot of people living near Powertech's proposed mine; not to mention southwest Colorado, where a similarly bitter fight is occurring over a proposed uranium mill.
In Nunn, residents like Joe Bagby question just how clean nuclear is; especially since you have to mine the uranium, and then store the radioactive waste.
"We had hundreds of thousands of wells in the Gulf of Mexico that weren't a problem either and now they're a problem. So it just takes the one Chernobyl," he says.
But Bagby says he thinks the mine will happen anyway, because he says it's a top down push from president Obama, a push that may get more of boost in Colorado and nationwide in light of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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