Yellowcake boomtown

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Abandoned housing in Jeffrey City, Wyoming in 2011 Boarded-up abandoned housing in Jeffrey City, Wyoming.jpg
Abandoned housing in Jeffrey City, Wyoming in 2011
Moab uranium mill tailings pile in 2010 Moab uranium mill tailings pile.jpg
Moab uranium mill tailings pile in 2010
Partially refined Yellowcake uranium oxide Yellow Cake Uranium (14492248719).jpg
Partially refined Yellowcake uranium oxide

A yellowcake boomtown also known as a uranium boomtown, is a town or community that rapidly increases in population and economics due to the discovery of uranium ore-bearing minerals, and the development of uranium mining, milling or enrichment activities. After these activities cease, the town "goes bust" and the population decreases rapidly. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Yellowcake (uranium oxide) is partially refined uranium ore, called so because of its bright yellow color. [4]

Jeffrey City, Wyoming is considered a yellowcake boomtown whose "boom" began in 1957, and by 1988 the town had gone "bust" with only a few residents left. [4]

Uranium "gold rush"

During the Cold War era in the mid-1950s, uranium became a valuable commodity. [1] [5] The sense of urgency to find and extract uranium and uranium-bearing ores was fueled by the rapidly developing nuclear weapons stockpile in response to the nuclear-arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This uranium mining boom was considered by prospectors, miners and investors as the new "gold rush". [5]

North America

Uranium City, the only building occupied in 2009 on Main Street is the one at front right Main Street Fog.jpg
Uranium City, the only building occupied in 2009 on Main Street is the one at front right

Examples of yellowcake boomtowns are Grants, New Mexico; Moab, Utah; Jeffrey City, Wyoming; and Uravan, Colorado, although there are many others throughout the American West, and in other countries. [1] [6]

Like many yellowcake boomtowns, Jeffrey City, Wyoming grew rapidly during the Cold War era from a "trailer town" to a bustling community after the development of uranium mining and processing facilities there. [1] By the 1960s the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons leveled off and the need for enriched uranium reached a plateau. With the development of nuclear energy in the 1970s the demand for yellowcake increased again. By the early 1980s, Jeffrey City had reached its apex (population 4,500); [7] the mine shut down in 1982 and by 1988 the town had "gone bust" after the uranium mill had been decommissioned. [4] The town lost 95% of its population, [8] and in 2010 only 58 people lived there. [7]

Moab, Utah, known as the "Uranium Capital of the World", is also considered a yellowcake boomtown, although its population has sustained due to tourism at the nearby Arches National Park. The boom was initiated in 1952 by Charlie Steen's discovery of uranium and vanadium ore. [9] [1] Within a few years following Steen's discovery, the population of Moab grew from 1,200 to 6,500. [10]

In 1950, Navajo rancher Paddy Martinez discovered uranium ore near Grants, New Mexico. The small village of Grants grew to become the "center of the largest uranium rush of the 1950s". Five processing mills were built to enrich the ore into yellowcake. Like Moab, the town of Grants is also referred to as the "Uranium Capital of the World". [1] After the discovery of uranium in 1950, its population grew from 2,200 to 50,000 within a few months. [11]

The uranium mining town Uravan, Colorado, is now an abandoned ghost town and Superfund site. [12] During the Cold War era Uravan had a population of 800; the town had a school, medical facilities, recreational centers and stores. It now has a population of zero, and all of the buildings have been demolished. [1] As part of the clean-up efforts, the town has been completely buried beneath sand and dirt; any visitors or "atomic tourists" are prohibited from exploring the area, or walking the grounds of the former town. [13]

In Edgemont, South Dakota the yellowcake goldrush started in 1951 when the town became "dominated by a massive, Chicago-based holding company," the Susquehanna Corporation, along with two subsidiary companies, Susquehanna-Western and Mines Development. In 1955, the Atomic Energy Commission chose the Colorado-based company Mines Development to build a uranium mill in Edgemont. [5] Workers were underpaid and not issued appropriate protective gear. In 1960, Mines Development was issued citations by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for failure to conduct required airborne radioactivity tests in areas used by employees. In the 1970s, Susquehanna Corporation sold its interests in the operation and left behind numerous abandoned uranium mines and associated radioactive mill tailings. Because no reclamation laws existed at the time requiring companies to clean up their environmental messes, abandoned mines remain in the Edgemont area to this day. [14] The short-term economic boost from uranium mining left behind a community that suffered from health and environmental impacts for decades afterwards. [5] In the 1980s the radioactive mill buildings and contaminated homes were demolished, however the abandoned open-pit uranium mines still exist. [15]

Australia

In Australia, Radium Hill had a population on 1,100 in the 1950s during the uranium mining boom; it now is a ghost town with residual hazards. [16] [17]

Other geographic areas

Other yellowcake boomtowns include Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada; [18] Dominionville, South Africa; [19] Uranium City, Saskatchewan, Canada; [20] Yangiobod, Uzbekistan [21] among others. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uraninite</span> Uranium-rich oxide mineral

Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the uranium causes the mineral to contain oxides of lead and trace amounts of helium. It may also contain thorium and rare-earth elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moab, Utah</span> City in Utah, United States of America

Moab is the largest city and county seat of Grand County in eastern Utah in the western United States, known for its dramatic scenery. The population was 5,366 at the 2020 census. Moab attracts many tourists annually, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The town is a popular base for mountain bikers who ride the extensive network of trails including the Slickrock Trail, and for off-roaders who come for the annual Moab Jeep Safari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey City, Wyoming</span> Census-designated place in Wyoming, United States

Jeffrey City is a former uranium mining boomtown located in Fremont County, in the central part of the U.S. state of Wyoming. The town is known in Wyoming and the American West as symbol of a boomtown that went "bust" very quickly, as the mine was shut down in 1982 and over 95% of the inhabitants left the town within three years. The population was 58 at the 2010 census, far lower than its onetime population of several thousand people. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Jeffrey City as a census-designated place (CDP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium City</span> Community in Saskatchewan, Canada

Uranium City is a northern settlement in Saskatchewan, Canada. Located on the northern shores of Lake Athabasca near the border of the Northwest Territories, it is 230 metres (750 ft) above sea level. The settlement is 760 kilometres (470 mi) northwest of Prince Albert, 760 kilometres (470 mi) northeast of Edmonton and 48 kilometres (30 mi) south of the Northwest Territories-Saskatchewan boundary. For census purposes, it is located within the province's Division No. 18 territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellowcake</span> Uranium concentrate powder

Yellowcake is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before fuel fabrication or uranium enrichment. Yellowcake concentrates are prepared by various extraction and refining methods, depending on the types of ores. Typically, yellowcakes are obtained through the milling and chemical processing of uranium ore, forming a coarse powder that has a pungent odor, is insoluble in water, and contains about 80% uranium oxide, which melts at approximately 2880 °C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Steen</span> American geologist and politician

Charles Augustus Steen was a geologist who made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the uranium boom of the early 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uravan, Colorado</span> Uranium mining ghost town in Montrose County, Colorado

Uravan is a former uranium mining town in western Montrose County, Colorado, United States, which still appears on some maps. The town was a company town established by U. S. Vanadium Corporation in 1936 to extract the rich vanadium ore in the region. As a byproduct of vanadium extraction, small amounts of uranium were also produced, at the time mostly used as a yellow pigment for ceramics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium mining</span> Process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground

Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of world production. Other countries producing more than 1,000 tons per year included Namibia, Niger, Russia, Uzbekistan, the United States, and China. Nearly all of the world's mined uranium is used to power nuclear power plants. Historically uranium was also used in applications such as uranium glass or ferrouranium but those applications have declined due to the radioactivity of uranium and are nowadays mostly supplied with a plentiful cheap supply of depleted uranium which is also used in uranium ammunition. In addition to being cheaper, depleted uranium is also less radioactive due to a lower content of short-lived 234
U and 235
U than natural uranium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddy Martinez</span> American prospector (1881–1969)

Patricio "Paddy" Martinez was an American prospector and shepherd who discovered uranium at Haystack Mesa in the San Juan Basin near Grants, New Mexico, in 1950. This was the first discovery in the Grants Uranium District, and led to a uranium boom that lasted almost 30 years. The San Juan Basin yielded 60% of the uranium in the United States, valued at over $25 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paradox, Colorado</span> Unincorporated community in Colorado, United States

Paradox is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office located in the Paradox Valley, Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The Paradox Post Office has the ZIP Code 81429.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium mining in the United States</span> Uranium mining industry in U.S.

Uranium mining in the United States produced 224,331 pounds (101.8 tonnes) of U3O8 in 2023, 15% of the 2018 production of 1,447,945 pounds (656.8 tonnes) of U3O8. The 2023 production represents 0.4% of the uranium fuel requirements of the US's nuclear power reactors for the year. Production came from five in-situ leaching plants, four in Wyoming (Nichols Ranch ISR Project, Lance Project, Lost Creek Project, and Smith Ranch-Highland Operation) and one in Nebraska (Crowe Butte Operation); and from the White Mesa conventional mill in Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium mining in Colorado</span>

Uranium mining in Colorado, United States, goes back to 1872, when pitchblende ore was taken from gold mines near Central City, Colorado. The Colorado uranium industry has seen booms and busts, but continues to this day. Not counting byproduct uranium from phosphate, Colorado is considered to have the third largest uranium reserves of any US state, behind Wyoming and New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium mining in Wyoming</span>

Uranium mining in Wyoming was formerly a much larger industry than it is today. Wyoming once had many operating uranium mines, and still has the largest known uranium ore reserves of any state in the U.S. At the end of 2008, the state had estimated reserves dependent on price: 539 million pounds of uranium oxide at $50 per pound, and 1,227 million pounds at $100 per pound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium mining in Utah</span>

Uranium mining in Utah, a state of the United States, has a history going back more than 100 years. Uranium mining started as a byproduct of vanadium mining about 1900, became a byproduct of radium mining about 1910, then back to a byproduct of vanadium when the radium price fell in the 1920s. Utah saw a uranium boom in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but uranium mining declined in the 1980s. Since 2001 there has been a revival of interest in uranium mining, as a result of higher uranium prices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">In situ leach</span> Mining process used to recover certain minerals

In-situ leaching (ISL), also called in-situ recovery (ISR) or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, in situ. In situ leach works by artificially dissolving minerals occurring naturally in a solid state. For recovery of material occurring naturally in solution, see: Brine mining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radium Hill</span> Former mine in South Australia

Radium Hill is a former minesite in South Australia which operated from 1906 until 1961. It was Australia's first uranium mine, years before the country's next major mines at Rum Jungle in the Northern Territory (opened in 1950), and the Mary Kathleen mine in Queensland (1958). The associated settlement which once housed up to 1,100 people is now a ghost town, largely abandoned and demolished. The former townsite and cemetery were provisionally listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 24 August 2016. During its main period of production between 1954 and 1961 the mine produced nearly 1 million tonnes of davidite-bearing ore to produce about 860 tons of U3O8.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action</span>

The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project was created by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to monitor the cleanup of uranium mill tailings, a by-product of the uranium concentration process that poses risks to the public health and environment. The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act passed by Congress in 1978 gave the DOE the authority to regulate tailings disposal sites and shifted disposal practices to more engineered designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boomtown</span> Community with sudden economic & population growth

A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons, such as a proximity to a major metropolitan area, huge construction project, or attractive climate.

The world's largest producer of uranium is Kazakhstan, which in 2019 produced 43% of the world's mining output. Canada was the next largest producer with a 13% share, followed by Australia with 12%. Uranium has been mined in every continent except Antarctica.

<i>Radium Gilbert</i> Canadian tugboat

The Radium Gilbert was a tugboat built for transporting supplies to, and ore from, the radium and uranium mines in Canada's Northwest Territories. Like the other tugs in the Radium Line she was steel-hulled.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Admundson, Michael A. (2002). Yellowcake Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press. ISBN   0-87081-765-5. JSTOR   j.ctt2tv5vc . Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  2. ↑ Keeling, A. (2010). "Born in an atomic test tube': landscapes of cyclonic development at Uranium City, Saskatchewan" (PDF). Canadian Geographer. 54 (2): 228–252. Bibcode:2010CGeog..54..228K. doi:10.1111/j.1541-0064.2009.00294.x.
  3. ↑ Goss, Addie (8 November 2008). "A New Boom? Mining Town Doesn't Hold Its Breath". NPR News. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Anderson, Chamois L.; Van Pelt, Lori. "Wyoming's Uranium Drama: Risks, Rewards and Remorse". Wyoming History. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Tupper, Seth (1 November 2015). "Radioactive Legacy, Part 1 of a Journal Special Report". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  6. ↑ Mauk, Ben (October 2017). "States of Decay". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Jeffrey City Ghost Town: This mining town boomed in the Atomic Age when uranium was gold, only to be abandoned when the industry collapsed". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  8. ↑ Admunson, Michael A. (Winter 1995). "Home on the Range No More: The boom and bust of a Wyoming uranium mining town". Western Historical Quarterly. 26. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  9. ↑ Stiles (1 June 2015). "Charlie Steen's Mi Vida & Boom Town Moab… by Maxine Newell". The Canyon County Zephyr. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  10. ↑ "Uranium Boom: How did Moab become "Boomtown"?". Moab Museum. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  11. ↑ "Paddy Martinez (1881-1969)". National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  12. ↑ "Uravan Uranium". Environmental Protection Agency. Archived from the original on 2004-09-08. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Uravan: Only a few signs remain of the buried Colorado mining town that supplied the uranium for the first atomic bomb". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  14. ↑ Tupper, Seth (1 November 2015). "Radioactive Legacy, Part 2 of a Journal special report: Danger in the mines and mill". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  15. ↑ Tupper, Seth (1 November 2015). "Radioactive Legacy, Part 3 of a Journal special report: The uranium boom goes bust". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  16. ↑ "Radium Hill Mine". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  17. ↑ Lottermoser, B.G.; Ashley, P.M. (2006). "Physical dispersion of radioactive mine waste at the rehabilitated Radium Hill uranium mine site, South Australia". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 53 (3): 485–499. Bibcode:2006AuJES..53..485L. doi:10.1080/08120090600632383. S2CID   53481984.
  18. ↑ Bucksar, Richard G. (1962). "Elliot Lake, Ontario: Problems of A Modern "Boom-Town"". Journal of Geography. 61 (3): 119–125. Bibcode:1962JGeog..61..119B. doi:10.1080/00221346208982122.
  19. ↑ De Wet, Phillip (4 December 2014). "Uranium mining town hopes long turned to dust". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  20. ↑ Sandberg, Patricia (2016). Sun Dogs and Yellowcake. Crackingstone Press. ISBN   9780995202306.
  21. ↑ "Glitterati". Eurasianet. Urasianet. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  22. ↑ van Wyck, Peter C. (2010). The Highway of the Atom. McGill-Queens University Press. ISBN   978-0773537835. JSTOR   j.ctt80mfz.
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