Midget to Giant

For the first time last week, the Atomic Energy Commission disclosed the full size and scope of one of the nation's newest and most vital industries. In a few brief years the mining and processing of uranium has grown from a midget industry into a giant, with an output worth more than $100 million a year. In 1956 alone, the AEC's figures revealed, the industry processed 3,000,000 tons of raw ore into 6,000 tons of uranium concentrate (one ton of concentrate contains 11 Ibs. of U-235, the reactor fuel).

AEC's plant at Monticello, Utah and eleven privately owned plants representing an investment of $50 million did the refining job. Top producer: Anaconda Co.'s mill at Bluewater, N. Mex., which handles 3,000 tons of ore daily. Eight more mills costing $35 million and capable of processing 4,000 tons daily are scheduled to be built in 1957 and early 1958. There will be plenty of ore for all. The AEC announced that the U.S. now has proven uranium reserves of 60 million tons, 60 times more than known reserves in 1948. Biggest cache: New Mexico's 41 million tons, 68.4% of the total--followed by Utah (7.5 million tons), Colorado (4.1 million), Arizona (2.6 million), Wyoming (2.3 million), Washington (1.5 million).

This year's production of uranium concentrate is equal to the energy value of 150 million tons of bituminous coal (about 32% of annual U.S. production). The fast growth of the industry has raised the question of whether there will be a use for all the uranium. AEC did not say, but it forecast a big market. It figures that U.S. nuclear electricity capacity by 1975 could require up to 15,000 tons of concentrate annually. The 180,000-kw. reactor to be built by Chicago's Commonwealth Edison group will require 75 tons of uranium metal just to start, and the Shippingport, Pa. reactor, scheduled to start operating next year, will need 12 tons.

Last week's sudden release of figures from the AEC is partly the result of a new agreement with Canada and Britain for declassifying secret information. (Canada, which exports ore only to the U.S., last week announced that its production rate of concentrate is 3,300 tons annually, and its known reserves are 225 million tons.) But it also reflects AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss's belief that private industry must be encouraged to increase its participation in atomic-power development rather than letting the job go to public-power plants. One way to prod private business, the AEC feels, is to put out more atomic facts.

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