All News & Blogs Opponents of uranium mining have made their
voices heard in Virginia. Steve Helber/ASSOCIATED PRESS View
More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place Date
published: 1/27/2013 CHATHAM--The rolling fields of Coles Hill
were once full of tobacco. Along with furniture and textiles,
the leaf sustained farmers, blue-collar workers and families in
this part of Virginia's Southside. All three industries are in
decline now, and the region typically leads the state in
unemployment. But something beneath the fields--something you
can't see--could be Southside's salvation. Uranium--enough to
power every nuclear power plant in the U.S. for 2 years--lies
under these fields where dozens of black-and-white Angus-
Hereford beef cattle were grazing on a gray, drizzly winter day.
Geologist Patrick M. Wales walked the field's fence line with a
Geiger counter to illustrate what hundreds of jobs sound like.
He stooped to clear layers of wet leaves from a culvert, then
cradled the detector in the middle of the