The National Academy of Sciences choose panelists for a study which will be used by the Virginia General Assembly to determine whether uranium mining should be permitted in the state. Attempts to lift a current ban on uranium mining were resumed in 2007 when the price of uranium spiked on global markets. Virginia Uranium, Inc., supposedly a funder of this study, is seeking to mine and mill approximately 110 million pounds of uranium, previously estimated at about $10 billion. The Gazette-Virginian Online.