Show uranium hunt grows steadily future hidden needs it Is a far cry today on the tact vad colorado plateau from the early when search was first started for or radium after madam curie discoveries that tha t boom lasted tor for several years year until after high grade radium was found in the belgian congo uranium mining gay say the ex experts As will win last indefinitely and tige there is is nothing to indicate they are wrong all evidence points to a continuing and healthy groath of the industry between the early and 1947 there was not much exploration for the magic ores on the plateau but when the manhattan district w was a s br brought aught into existence the first lew few tons of uranium concentrate was taken from tailings remaining after the vanadium content had been extracted from radi radium vanadium uranium ores mi mined ed from the sandstones of the region the rhe word went out the reVon big hunt un for the strange substance began A new surge of activity was started on the plateau hundreds of miners swept into the area in search of the magic 1 1 cie ores so sorely needed by the theu y S gov government arso for use in manufacturing the at atom m bomb discoveries were made mad e almost daily then was set up by congress the atomic energy commission and the statement of senator mcmahon appearing in the congressional record defines explore ex exploration plora and the governments policy regarding government participation upon the sources of these materials tu ddn may well rest the security of the nation so we decided it was better to encourage the independent prospector to find and discover uranium deposits and to see to it that when they were discovered the commission would be the only buyer of them at a price p nc e fixed by the commission T the h e s senator further observed it is not the intent of the committee to authorize the commission to engage in mining operations in competition with arl vate ate mining activity unless guch such operations De rations are necessary t to 0 supply ply aan an adequate abou amou amount n 0 of source materials the act was passed on au august gust 1 1946 the atomic energy commission was created as of january january 1947 and the work of 0 exploration for or ore and the evaluation of the tile potential production of the colorado plateau began in the summer of that year the schedule of prices established by the includes bonus payments on the first pounds of ore ranging from 3 00 for 10 per cent content of to 00 for 1000 per cent ore of the or types A year later there still was practically tio no uranium mining in the plateau area ore de deposits were scattered and small and only two or three had been found which contained tons or more today there are a dozen or more ton ore bodies and the reveals there are some million ton deposits ore production has been doubling every eighteen months and even greater expansion is just ahead new mills are being built and old mills are being expanded all on a gigantic gamble and what does the future hold bold for this wonderous new indus industry that has contributed so much 70 to the economy of the united states what will happen after the present government buying program officially fici fie ally lally ends in 1962 what J Is the plan for keeping the industry alive jesse C johnson director of the division of raw materials said before the american mining congress at san francisco on sept 22 last year to maintain continuing production from colorado type deposits there must be an assured government vern or commercial manketo market the results of the domestic uranium program further confirm the view of the mining industry that the way to develop mineral production is to provide a market with wien adequate profit incentives and let private industry go to work the long term market depends upon the he use of nuclear fuel power mr johnson also said at that same meeting our domestic uranium ore buying schedule is guaranteed through march 31 1962 this does not necessarily indicate an end date this program has had earlier termination dates first in 1951 then extended to 1954 then to 1958 and now to 1962 while no definite commitment can be given there will be further cx extensions tensions of the guaranteed market under the defense program mr johnson han mentioned industrial power and private industry what at was his meaning the alls open files file reveal the possible implications of his remarks the most promising commercial m market a r k e t for uranium i produced power is that of electr electrical alme produced en energy agy the use of nuclear energy t to 0 produce electricity involves mer merely ely a matter of trans transferring ferrin g reactor heat beat to a steam boiler and using the steam team in a turbine connected with ith a generator this has been demonstrated as feasible and there is no question about building large power units on the basis of P present resent technology the problem of industrial application is one of economics of producing power at a cost comparable with that generated from conventional fuels studies by th tha and by large industrial firms indicate that within ten years nuclear power will be competitive at least in high cost power ower areas it is very possible that at plants pla ants built after 1965 because aus e of experience and technological ical advances may produce power at costs in the range of five to seven mills in the range of fi five je to seven mills per kilowatt hour that cost Js is the target of the companies presently engaged on development work if this goal is achieved nuclear energy will become an important factor in the production of elec triciti and uranium will be the fuel for many future generating plants the mining industry might well ask bow how much uranium will be required by the power companies experts agree there should be ref reserves of nuclear fuel for at least one hundred years basing the reserve needs on the investment of billions of dollars in new generating plants A study made for the assumes that nuclear power capacity in the united states may he be 12 million kilowatts by 1970 42 million by 1980 and million by 1990 and it has lai been calculated that the inventory requirement tor for kilowatts of electrical capacity pa city is tons of uran liim replacement of used cranium to 0 operate the kilowatts of af electrical capacity will require about 50 tons of uranium annual ly therefore be the need tor for uranium concentrates will grow throughout he the coming corn g yea years it will not wt dunI diminish Ish as some robve have feared |