Out Where the Click Is Louder

Modern prospectors who take to the hills in search of uranium need fancier equipment than the oldtime pick, shovel and burro. They also need a new kind of knowledge. To help uranium prospectors, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Geological Survey last week issued a handbook, written in simple language, called Prospecting for Uranium (Government Printing Office; 30-c-). It describes various uranium ores, tells where they are apt to be found and how they can be identified.

The best way to look for uranium, says the booklet, is with a Geiger counter, now manufactured by dozens of companies and retailing for as little as $54.50. Geiger counters click all the time because of "background radioactivity" caused by cosmic rays and the tiny amounts of radioactive materials present in most rocks. The prospector should first record the "background count"; any increase is interesting. "If the radioactivity of any particular rock is four times the background count," says the handbook, "a sample should be taken."

All radioactive rock does not contain uranium. It may contain thorium (also radioactive), in which the AEC has only a faint interest. The booklet describes a rather complicated process by which the prospector can test his find with ultraviolet light.

The Government's guaranteed price for uranium oxide (U2O4) in sufficient concentration is $3.50 a lb. The AEC also pays a $10,000 bonus for a really good find.

One rather plaintive chapter in the Government's booklet answers some questions which the AEC has been getting from would-be prospectors. The Government, it says, will not finance prospectors, nor will it lend or rent Geiger counters. It discourages people who write that they have found a place where their watches or compasses don't work (uranium does not affect watches or compasses). And phosphorescence (from decayed stumps at night) is not a sign that uranium is present.

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