A heated debate was been ongoing for years as to whether the United States should build a new nuclear power plant; the first since the 1970s. Proponents make their case on the grounds that nuclear power is safe, need not be imported and is clean. Thus is solves two problems at once, they state, by making America more energy independent and reduce emissions in a world of global warming. After all, if France can get 70% of its energy from nuclear power, why can’t America?

Most opponents of nuclear power fail to see past their ideological opposition. They were raised in the era of Three Mile Island and still cling to the belief that nuclear power, just, “un-progressive.” Besides, they claim, what is to be done with all the nuclear waste that cannot not be recycled or extinguished. They object to burying under ground.

The pro-nuclear side is winning the debate with even the Democrat Obama administration supporting the building of three new nuclear plants. Nuclear plants need uranium, and that uranium may end up coming from Virginia.

Currently, 70% of American uranium comes from Russia. But a long-settled Virgina family may change that.

Walter Coles and his family have owned land along Virginia’s rolling hills since before the American Revolution. Unbeknowst to their ancestral landowners, they are sitting on a uranium gold mine worth billions of dollars. They Coles have already agreed to tentative deals with an assortment of investors from hedge funds to Canadian energy firms in their hope of mining that uranium.

With such an abundance of resources, Virginia could become an energy exporting state. Currently, the state is second only to California in energy-imports. But if they Coles had their way the state would be selling nuclear power to North Carolina and beyond.

One problem. A 1982 passed in part due lobbying efforts by environmentalists bans any uranium mining. And the environmentalists are not keen on rewriting the law. But the Coles are not giving up just yet. First, they knew the Obama administration has just earmarked over $18 in loans for the three aforementioned nuclear plants. Their argument to state legislators is simply: if America is going nuclear, why should Virginia miss out?

They are donating to state legislators, and will continue to do so; and have hired a grouping of lobbyists. If Virginia were California, uranium mining would never happen. But, thank God, it is not. It is ranked as the best-governed state in the country [as opposed to the incredible maladmanagement in California] where prudence is the order.

If all plans out, Virginia made add nuclear energy to its already dynamic economy.

Source: In Virginia’s glowing hills.