NUCLEAR FUELS 



457 



owing to obsolescence. If, on the other hand, fast- 

 breeder reactors are not successfully developed, ura- 

 nium requirements will continue to increase, as 

 shown by the dashed line on figure 54. 



The identified domestic recoverable resources of 

 273,000 short tons UaOg as of December 31, 1971, 

 can supply domestic requirements into the early 

 1980's. After that time, uranium requirements prob- 

 ably cannot be satisfied merely by finding new ore 

 bodies in the known mining districts, but will require 

 the discovery of new districts. This task poses a 

 great challenge to industry. Guides to new districts 

 are urgently needed. 



The world nuclear electric capacity was about 

 18,000 MWE (megawatts electrical) in January 

 1969 and is expected to grow to between 230,000 and 

 330,000 MWE by 1980, according to the European 

 Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic 

 Energy Agency (1969, p. 19). Total cumulative 

 world uranium demand for the period 1970-80 is 

 estimated at 563,000-739,000 short tons of UsOg, 

 and world demand of 73,000-106,000 short tons is 

 anticipated in 1980. 



Thermal and nuclide pollution from nuclear reac- 

 tors are serious problems that challenge technical 

 ingenuity and affect the cost of nuclear electric 

 power. The half -lives of some nuclides require safe 

 disposal or storage for 10,000-500,000 years. 



EXPLOITATION 



Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Marten Klap- 

 roth in pitchblende from a mine in Germany. The 

 element was first isolated in 1842. Radioactivity was 

 discovered in 1896, and radium, a daughter of ura- 

 nium decay, was discovered by the Curies and Be- 

 mont in 1898 in pitchblende from Joachymov 

 ( Joachimsthal) , Czechoslovakia, where the mineral 

 had been known since 1727. In the early 19O0's, 

 radium became important in medical therapy. This 

 led to the search for uranium ore as a source for 

 radium. The first important sources of radium out- 

 side Czechoslovakia were the uranium-vanadium 

 sandstone deposits in western Colorado and eastern 

 Utah from which about 275,000 tons of ore was 

 produced during the period 1898-1923. This ore 

 yielded about 200 grams of radium, 2,000 tons of 

 vanadium, and a small but indeterminate amount of 

 uranium; most of the uranium went into the tail- 

 ings (Fischer, 1968). 



In 1923, the U.S. deposits were supplanted as the 

 source of radium by the large and rich Shinkolobwe 

 vein deposit in the Belgian Congo. In 1933, produc- 

 tion began from another vein deposit, the Eldorado 

 at Port Radium, Northwest Territories, Canada, and 



thereafter the market was shared by Canada and 

 the Belgian Congo. Only minor amounts of domestic 

 uranium-vanadium sandstone ore were mined from 

 1924-1935. 



In 1936, mining of the uranium-vanadium ores 

 increased markedly owing to increased demand for 

 vanadium. In anticipation of the development of 

 controlled nuclear fission, the United States in 1940 

 began to recover uranium from tailings discarded 

 during radium and vanadium operations, and by the 

 end of 1947 a total of 1,440 tons of UsOs had been 

 produced (U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1959). 

 In addition, the United States procured about 10,150 

 tons of UaOs from outside sources, mainly Canada 

 and the Belgian Congo. Prior to 1940, the total pro- 

 duction from all world sources was slightly more 

 than 7,500 tons of UaOg. 



To meet military needs, the U.S. Atomic Energy 

 Commission established in 1948 a domestic mini- 

 mum price schedule that included bonus payments 

 for discovery and production of high-grade ore. The 

 base price was raised in 1951. These incentives 

 brought about the first large-scale mining of 

 uranium-vanadium ores solely for uranium, and led 

 to the discovery of many large deposits not only in 

 the Colorado Plateau region, but also in Washington, 

 Wyoming, South Dakota, and Texas. By 1956 it was 

 clear that the newly discovered domestic and foreign 

 resources of uranium were adequate for military 

 needs as well as for its experimental use in nuclear 

 reactors for producing electricity. Accordingly, the 

 U.S. Atomic Energy Commission announced in 1956 

 that after March 31, 1962, a price of $8 per pound 

 for UaOg concentrate would replace the original price 

 schedules. Later they announced that ore discovered 

 after November 24, 1958, would not be purchased 

 under any of the existing price schedules, and that 

 if it were purchased at all, each sale would be 

 individually negotiated. In 1959, the U.S. Atomic 

 Energy Commission relinquished its options to con- 

 tinue foreign purchases and in 1962, proposed to 

 stretch out domestic purchases. 



Annual domestic production reached a maximum 

 of 18,800 tons of UaOg in 1960, whereas world pro- 

 duction peaked at more than 44,000 tons in 1959 

 (fig. 55). Both domestic and world production de- 

 clined to lows of about 10,000 and 19,000 tons, re- 

 spectively, in 1966. In 1964 and 1965 actual demands 

 and predicted future demands for nuclear power- 

 plants stimulated new exploration and mining, which 

 resulted in increased production in 1967. This reju- 

 venation was short-lived, however, because predicted 

 demands did not materialize, owing partly to delay 

 of reactor deliveries and partly to public concern 



