Welcome to A People's Atlas of Nuclear Colorado
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Navigating the Atlas
You may browse the Atlas by following the curated "paths" of information and interpretation provided by the editors. These paths roughly track the movement of radioactive materials from the earth, into weapons or energy sources, and then into unmanageable waste—along with the environmental, social, technical, and ethical ramifications of these processes. In addition to the stages of the production process, you may view in sequence the positivist, technocratic version of this story, or the often hidden or repressed shadow side to the industrial processing of nuclear materials.
Using the buttons on the left, you may also browse the Atlas's artworks and scholarly essays, access geolocated material on a map, and learn more about contributors to the project.
If you would like to contribute materials to the Atlas, please reach out to the editors: Sarah Kanouse (s.kanouse at northeastern.edu) and Shiloh Krupar (srk34 at georgetown.edu).
Cover Image by Shanna Merola, "An Invisible Yet Highly Energetic Form of Light," from Nuclear Winter.
Atlas design by Byse.
Funded by grants from Georgetown University and Northeastern University. Initial release September 2021.
Using the buttons on the left, you may also browse the Atlas's artworks and scholarly essays, access geolocated material on a map, and learn more about contributors to the project.
If you would like to contribute materials to the Atlas, please reach out to the editors: Sarah Kanouse (s.kanouse at northeastern.edu) and Shiloh Krupar (srk34 at georgetown.edu).
Cover Image by Shanna Merola, "An Invisible Yet Highly Energetic Form of Light," from Nuclear Winter.
Atlas design by Byse.
Funded by grants from Georgetown University and Northeastern University. Initial release September 2021.
R.P. Fischer and L.S. Hilpert, Map from "Geology of the Uravan Mineral Belt", 1952, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 988-A
Site
Uravan Mineral Belt
The Uravan Mineral Belt is a 70 by 30-mile geological zone of carnotite ore deposits (comprised of uranium, vanadium, and radium) in Colorado's San Miguel, Montrose, and Mesa counties as well as eastern Utah. In 1898 yellow ore extracted from a Roc Creek deposit in Montrose County tested high in uranium and vanadium. Mining camps sprang up at Roc Creek, Calamity, Wedding Bell, and Slick Rock in the radium boom that followed. Soon the nation's first full-scale mill for processing radioactive metals went into operation. Important mining towns included Uravan, Naturita, and Bedrock in Colorado and La Sal and Moab in Utah.
Mining work began in 1910 by both the Radium Luminous Metals Company and the Radium Company of Colorado, to process local carnotite and roscoelite ores into radium, uranium, and vanadium. By 1911, Standard Chemical Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania built Joe Jr. Mill to process radium. Radium fetched as much as $100 per milligram in 1913, and Standard Chemical Company's processing plant in Montrose County became the world's largest supplier. From 1910 to 1922, the Uravan Mineral Belt produced half of the world's radium.
In 1928, U.S. Vanadium (USV) purchased the radium concentrating mill and local properties from Standard Chemical, and began producing vanadium and then uranium in 1938. In the early-to-mid-1940s, USV specialized in processing mill tailings into uranium oxide, also known as yellowcake, and continued that work up until the end of World War II. The yellowcake mined in Uravan was used in the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During the Cold War, Colorado's mills produced more than 50 million pounds of uranium for the U.S. weapons stockpile.
Over the decades, wild swings in prices and demand caused mines to close, open, and close again, leaving behind hazardous mine shafts and radioactive mill tailings. The cost of remediating old mill sites is staggering: over $1 billion has been This is based on 2018 figures.spent to date, but plumes of contaminants still pollute the San Miguel, Dolores, and Colorado rivers. In the 1980s and 1990s, Umetco proposed offsetting the costs of the Uravan cleanup by opening a for-profit radioactive waste dump that was scuttled by public outcry. Today, hundreds of abandoned mine sites dot the region, mostly on public land, and await remediation.
The region's economy has turned toward ecotourism, but uranium's historical legacy lives on. The Rimrocker Historical Society, for example, works toward the restoration and preservation of Uravan. Even after the town was declared a Superfund site, Rimrocker salvaged two structures and purchased a nearby property historically used as a ballpark that now hosts annual gatherings for former residents.
The prospect of another uranium boom continues to flicker. A nearly ten-year effort to build a new uranium mill in the Paradox Valley - the first in more than thirty years - was successfully fought by local activists due to its impact on the fish and waterways of arid Western Colorado. Yet exploratory activities continue across the region, and mines remain on standby status both to avoid cleanup and to restart operations should uranium prices recover. Should the proposed national strategic uranium stockpile come into being, mining operations in Colorado and the Four Corners region would quickly resume.
Fischer, R. P. and L. S. Hilpert. "Geology of the Uravan Mineral Belt." Geological Survey Bulletin 988-A. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952. Accessed March 26, 2018.
Frosch, Dan. "A Fight in Colorado Over Uranium Mines." New York Times, April 16, 2013. Accessed July 30, 2020.
Hessler, Peter. "The Uranium Widows." The New Yorker, September 6, 2010. Accessed July 30, 2020.
Twitty, Eric. Guide to Assessing Historic Radium, Uranium, and Vanadium Mining Resources in Montrose and San Miguel Counties. Boulder, CO: Mountain States Historical, 2008.
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management. "Final Uranium Leasing Program." 2014. Accessed July 30, 2020.
Zasky, Jason. "Uravan, Colorado." Failure Magazine, November 21, 2012. Waybackmachine. January 28, 2022. Accessed January 13, 2023.
Mining work began in 1910 by both the Radium Luminous Metals Company and the Radium Company of Colorado, to process local carnotite and roscoelite ores into radium, uranium, and vanadium. By 1911, Standard Chemical Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania built Joe Jr. Mill to process radium. Radium fetched as much as $100 per milligram in 1913, and Standard Chemical Company's processing plant in Montrose County became the world's largest supplier. From 1910 to 1922, the Uravan Mineral Belt produced half of the world's radium.
In 1928, U.S. Vanadium (USV) purchased the radium concentrating mill and local properties from Standard Chemical, and began producing vanadium and then uranium in 1938. In the early-to-mid-1940s, USV specialized in processing mill tailings into uranium oxide, also known as yellowcake, and continued that work up until the end of World War II. The yellowcake mined in Uravan was used in the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During the Cold War, Colorado's mills produced more than 50 million pounds of uranium for the U.S. weapons stockpile.
Over the decades, wild swings in prices and demand caused mines to close, open, and close again, leaving behind hazardous mine shafts and radioactive mill tailings. The cost of remediating old mill sites is staggering: over $1 billion has been This is based on 2018 figures.spent to date, but plumes of contaminants still pollute the San Miguel, Dolores, and Colorado rivers. In the 1980s and 1990s, Umetco proposed offsetting the costs of the Uravan cleanup by opening a for-profit radioactive waste dump that was scuttled by public outcry. Today, hundreds of abandoned mine sites dot the region, mostly on public land, and await remediation.
The region's economy has turned toward ecotourism, but uranium's historical legacy lives on. The Rimrocker Historical Society, for example, works toward the restoration and preservation of Uravan. Even after the town was declared a Superfund site, Rimrocker salvaged two structures and purchased a nearby property historically used as a ballpark that now hosts annual gatherings for former residents.
The prospect of another uranium boom continues to flicker. A nearly ten-year effort to build a new uranium mill in the Paradox Valley - the first in more than thirty years - was successfully fought by local activists due to its impact on the fish and waterways of arid Western Colorado. Yet exploratory activities continue across the region, and mines remain on standby status both to avoid cleanup and to restart operations should uranium prices recover. Should the proposed national strategic uranium stockpile come into being, mining operations in Colorado and the Four Corners region would quickly resume.
Sources
Chenoweth, William L. / U.S. Department of Energy Office. "The Uranium-Vanadium Deposits of the Uravan Mineral Belt and Adjacent Areas, Colorado and Utah." In Western Slope Colorado—Western Colorado and Eastern Utah, edited by Rudy C. Epis and Jonathan F. Callender, 165-170. New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook, 32nd Field Conference, Western Slope Colorado, 1981. Accessed July 30, 2020.Fischer, R. P. and L. S. Hilpert. "Geology of the Uravan Mineral Belt." Geological Survey Bulletin 988-A. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952. Accessed March 26, 2018.
Frosch, Dan. "A Fight in Colorado Over Uranium Mines." New York Times, April 16, 2013. Accessed July 30, 2020.
Hessler, Peter. "The Uranium Widows." The New Yorker, September 6, 2010. Accessed July 30, 2020.
Twitty, Eric. Guide to Assessing Historic Radium, Uranium, and Vanadium Mining Resources in Montrose and San Miguel Counties. Boulder, CO: Mountain States Historical, 2008.
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management. "Final Uranium Leasing Program." 2014. Accessed July 30, 2020.
Zasky, Jason. "Uravan, Colorado." Failure Magazine, November 21, 2012. Waybackmachine. January 28, 2022. Accessed January 13, 2023.
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