Residents, scientists and environmentalists are offering their views on what a study of uranium mining in Virginia should entail.

Their widely divergent views were offered Friday in Richmond at a legislative hearing.

The study will focus on a vast deposit of uranium that is the seventh largest in the world and the largest in the U.S. Virginia has a moratorium on uranium mining.

The uranium deposit contains 119 million pounds of uranium ore valued at between $8 billion and $10 billion.

It has become a tempting deposit because of the renewed interest in nuclear power.

Environmentalists have expressed concern about mining because the surface operation would be susceptible to severe weather, which they fear could scatter radioactive materials and foul drinking water.