what they are doing in new mexico

http://www.stockinterview.com/News/03132007/Uranium-Mining-Study-New-Mexico.html

New Mexico to Start Study of Uranium Mining Safety

State Senator’s Uranium Initiative Helps Launch New Fact-Finding Study

State Senator David Ulibarri wants New Mexico to rely upon science –something concrete and factual, not innuendo – when reaching a decision on uranium mining. His recent Senate Memorial put the spotlight on New Mexico’s massive uranium reserves – now worth more than US$54 billion.


In early February, New Mexico state senator David Ulibarri (D-Cibola, Socorro and Valencia-30) introduced a Senate Memorial (SJM 10) to call attention to the importance of New Mexico for uranium production and the energy produced from enriched uranium. A month later, SJM 10 successfully passed through the Senate Rules Committee and was approved by the Senate Conservation Committee. It was scheduled for a full vote in the Senate.

But Senator Ulibarri is holding back the memorial. “I held it back,” Senator Ulibarri told StockInterview. “I think I got the full support of the Senate. There are only about eight votes that would vote against it.” Why stop now? “It doesn’t have any teeth,” he told us. “I just wanted to bring dialogue. I think it’s already done that.”

What then was accomplished with the Senate Memorial? “The memorial was to bring attention that we as a country and as a state have to look at diversifying our energy needs. We’re about twenty-five to thirty years behind with nuclear. Everybody associates nuclear with bombs. No, we need it for energy. We can’t depend on coal and oil. We have to diversify. Look at France. Look at Japan. Look at the rest of the world. We have about 600 million pounds in the Cibola-McKinley area. That’s a $50-billion industry. It could be.”



The New Mexico Mining Museum in Grants, New Mexico has an excellent replica of an underground uranium mine. For about seven years, Senator Ulibarri was an underground miner, working for Homestake and Kerr-McGee, at Ambrosia Lake, near Grants New Mexico.


Is the senator then killing the memorial? “No, I’m not killing it,” he responded. “I represent an area that is ‘grassroots’ pro-nuclear – the Grants and Cibola area. What I want to do is to get a compromise and say: ‘let’s work together and get a study done.’ I want a study that is based on something concrete, not innuendos.” Senator Ulibarri told us he wanted to invite various state agencies, New Mexico Tech University and the uranium mining industry to engage in this study.

“We can work out a deal to study it with theory and not be emotional,” he told StockInterview. “It’s all emotion right now, and it got out of hand. You have a bunch of environmentalists that are scaring the people. I feel we need to start planning. The mining is going to start coming, like it or not. We need to start planning with them so we get our concessions. The industry is a friendly industry. We have to work with them.” Foremost of the state senator’s concerns were that the industry takes care of the water tables and the environment.

As we were going to press with this story, an attorney closely working with Senator Ulibarri informed us of a new development. It won’t be a task force, panel or commission. Instead, the study will likely be conducted by New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resource Department in conjunction with Senator Ulibarri and Senator Lynda Lovejoy, and will include several members of the uranium mining industry. Both Senator Ulibarri and Senator Lovejoy were recently appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to fill vacant senatorial seats.



Ms. Lovejoy is the first Native American woman to serve in the New Mexico Senate.
The study will cost north of $100,000 and be funded by the uranium industry. “This country has to look at nuclear very seriously,” Senator Ulibarri told us. “Given the importance of nuclear energy in the makeup of our country’s energy resources, we will see demand for uranium production continue to grow.”

During his campaign for dialogue, the state senator argued for increased use of nuclear energy. In a recent news release, he stated, “Nuclear energy production is one way to avoid the build-up of greenhouse gases as we increase our national energy production.” He explained to his senate colleagues that electricity demand in the United States could grow a whopping 50 percent over the next twenty years, telling us, “I think we have the attention of the Administration, Environmental and Natural Resources. I think overall we brought attention to the resources. A lot of people didn’t realize we had that kind of resources in Cibola County – 600 million pounds!”

How did the Navajo Nation react? “When this memorial went through, they thought it would be mined on Indian land,” he explained. “We’re talking about public and private places outside the reservation.” Indeed, in his first news release about SJM 10, Senator Ulibarri stated, “There is nothing in this bill that would impact the sovereignty of the Tribes – and, as the sponsor, I fully respect and recognize their sovereignty.”

What happens if the Navajo Nation wishes to stop uranium mining in Grants, New Mexico? “Right now, they can’t stop it,” he told us. “The mining laws of 1993 allow mining companies, as long as they abide by regulations, I can’t see them stopping it.” Senator Ulibarri also pointed out that not all Navajos are opposed to uranium mining. “The Navajo Allottees have come to me and said, ‘We want to mine on our land. We don’t care what the Navajo Nation says. We want it!’”

We asked about how the Navajos have used their religion to stop uranium mining. “That’s not where I want this to go,” he told us. “Anytime they want to kill something, they kill it with religion. It’s non-tangible. They start using that sentimental deal. I want the study to be something concrete.”

The senator expects the study will be completed in 2007 and ready for the next legislative session in January 2008. He is confident once the new technology of uranium mining is better understood that uranium mining will come back to New Mexico. “We now know that this can be done safely if we pay attention to what we have learned over the last 30 years,” he announced in a news release. “What I would like to do is promote the technology that is there, and which people don’t know exists with how to handle uranium.” He explained that uranium “doesn’t put out emissions like coal does.”

Senator Ulibarri is excited about the prospect of his study. In an earlier news release, he wrote, “I am confident a paradigm shift is coming that will provide clearer thinking about how to address our environmental and energy problems.” He told us, “Several mining companies are going forward with their permits. I really think it’s going to come – uranium mining.”

And now the wheels have turned to finally study the safety of uranium mining in New Mexico.


Cheers markco2