Denver Post Staff Writer Nancy Lofholm reports on the surging global demand for nuclear power and why Colorado and Utah are ground zero for mining firms trying to meet that demand.
In western Colorado and eastern Utah, where salt-wash deposits and sandstone hold the source of nuclear power, a scramble for mining claims, a flurry of demand for processing radioactive ore and a clamor for more miners are underway.
The latest race for yellowcake, spurred by plans for increased nuclear power across the globe, follows years when claim activity was nearly nil.
The 435 nuclear reactors in the world, including 104 in the United States, need 180 million pounds of uranium annually, but only 100 million pounds have been produced in recent years. China and India are leading a worldwide push for more nuclear power with ambitious plans for new power plants. President Bush is pushing to increase the 20 percent of United States power produced in nuclear plants.
With that growing demand, if no new supplies were being mined, domestic uranium would run out in three years.
"No doubt about it, the world needs more uranium," said Tom Pool, chairman of International Nuclear Inc. in Golden.
More than 8,500 mining-claim permits have been filed in eight uranium-rich Colorado and Utah counties this year. And the U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to put 13,600 acres of uranium-laced western Colorado lands up for bid next year, the first such action since 1974.
Interest is focused on the Uravan Mineral Belt, a swath of western Colorado desert that holds a unique combination of the steel- hardener vanadium mingled with uranium.
Those rushing to file new claims or activate old ones include Canadian companies, which already control some of the richest uranium deposits in the world, domestic mining companies and local families that have been chasing uranium and vanadium payoffs for generations.
"I see this boom not being a spike like in the early '90s. And I see it being more sustained than it was in the '70s and '80s," said Ed Cotter, the contract project manager for uranium leasing for the Department of Energy.
In western Colorado and eastern Utah, where salt-wash deposits and sandstone hold the source of nuclear power, a scramble for mining claims, a flurry of demand for processing radioactive ore and a clamor for more miners are underway.
The latest race for yellowcake, spurred by plans for increased nuclear power across the globe, follows years when claim activity was nearly nil.
The 435 nuclear reactors in the world, including 104 in the United States, need 180 million pounds of uranium annually, but only 100 million pounds have been produced in recent years. China and India are leading a worldwide push for more nuclear power with ambitious plans for new power plants. President Bush is pushing to increase the 20 percent of United States power produced in nuclear plants.
With that growing demand, if no new supplies were being mined, domestic uranium would run out in three years.
"No doubt about it, the world needs more uranium," said Tom Pool, chairman of International Nuclear Inc. in Golden.
More than 8,500 mining-claim permits have been filed in eight uranium-rich Colorado and Utah counties this year. And the U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to put 13,600 acres of uranium-laced western Colorado lands up for bid next year, the first such action since 1974.
Interest is focused on the Uravan Mineral Belt, a swath of western Colorado desert that holds a unique combination of the steel- hardener vanadium mingled with uranium.
Those rushing to file new claims or activate old ones include Canadian companies, which already control some of the richest uranium deposits in the world, domestic mining companies and local families that have been chasing uranium and vanadium payoffs for generations.
"I see this boom not being a spike like in the early '90s. And I see it being more sustained than it was in the '70s and '80s," said Ed Cotter, the contract project manager for uranium leasing for the Department of Energy.
