Uravan, Colorado
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Uravan (a contraction of Uranium vanadium) is an abandoned uranium mining town[1] in western Montrose County, Colorado, United States, that is now a Superfund site. The town was a company town established by U. S. Vanadium Corporation in 1936 to extract the rich vanadium ore in the region. As a byproduct of vanadium extraction, small amounts of uranium were also produced, at the time mostly used as a yellow pigment.
The town was located approximately 90 miles (140 km) south-southwest of Grand Junction along the San Miguel River.
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[edit] History
[edit] Prehistoric
There are several prehistoric sites near Uravan on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties:[2]
- Dolores Cave was inhabited from about 600 BC to AD 1400. A corn code dated about AD 1500 was found in the site, which indicates that corn was grown in the area after the Ancient Pueblo People (Anasazi) abandoned their Colorado pueblos in the 13th century.
- Tabeguache Cave II is a large prehistoric rock shelter occupied from about AD 600 - 1500. There is also a Tabeguache Cave and two other rock shelters near Nucla, Colorado.
[edit] 20th century uranium mining
During World War II, Uravan provided part of the uranium needed by the Manhattan Project for the first atomic bomb. Because of wartime secrecy the Manhattan Project would only publicly admit to purchasing the vanadium, and did not pay the uranium miners for the uranium ore (in a much later lawsuit, many miners were able to reclaim lost profits from the U.S. government).
In the beginning of the Cold War, to ensure adequate supplies of uranium for national defense, the United States Congress passed the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1946, creating the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) which had the power to withdraw prospective uranium mining land from public purchase, and also to manipulate the price of uranium to meet national needs. By setting a high price for uranium ore, the AEC created a uranium "boom" in the early 1950s, which attracted many prospectors to the four corners region of the country. Uravan's fortunes grew as it became one of the major "yellowcake towns" in the region.
American military requirements of uranium declined in the 1960s, and the government completed its uranium procurement program by the end of 1970. Simultaneously, a new market emerged: commercial nuclear power plants. However, the U.S. domestic uranium mining industry collapsed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, due to lack of new nuclear power plants, and to low-price uranium imported from Canada.
Environmental cleanup of the site commenced in 1986 and was essentially completed by 2001 at a cost to taxpayers of at least $120 million.[citation needed] All the buildings have been removed and the site regraded and replanted. All that remains is a turnoff and interpretive sign along Colorado State Highway 141.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Uravan". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:203153. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
- ^ National & State Registers. Colorado Historical Society, Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 10-8-2011.
[edit] External links
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Coordinates: 38°22′06″N 108°44′11″W / 38.36833°N 108.73639°W
