Yellowcake Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West

7 Creatures of Uncle Sam: Yellowcake Communities During the Allocation and Stretch-out Periods

B Y 1 9 5 8 U R A N I U M H A D T R A N S F O R M E D U R A V A N , Moab, Grants, and Jeffrey City into yellowcake communities in terms of their economy, landscape, and image. Just as the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) maintained strict control over the domestic industry, the futures of these towns and their citizens were intricately tied to the federal government . Grants Daily Beacon editor James B. Barber could have been speaking for any of the communities when he commented in 1957 that his city was now “Uncle Sam’s Creature.” Because nearly everyone in the community was dependent on either the uranium industry or a uranium-associated business, Barber suggested that his town’s future lay almost beyond local authority.1 Up to 1957, this growing dependence had meant unexpected growth. But as the industry matured and the government programs shifted from increased production to allocation and protection, this dependency redefined the yellowcake communities by first stabilizing their growth and then stopping it. By 1970 the federal government’s shifting policies had turned the boom to bust. 7 Creatures of Uncle Sam: Yellowcake Communities During the Allocation and Stretch-out Periods Chapter Creatures of Uncle Sam 116 In short, AEC policies during the period 1958–1970 recognized the fact that the government’s procurement program had been so successful that domestic supply was rapidly outgrowing both military demand and slowly developing commercial power plant needs. Therefore, identifying the government’s responsibility to assist the domestic industry it had created , the AEC took measures to limit the production of uranium while keeping many producers and the yellowcake towns alive until commercial demand increased. These measures were intended to stabilize supply, decrease foreign purchases and competition, and increase demand. Beginning with the allocation program’s intent to buy only ore developed prior to 24 November 1958 and continuing through the stretch-out program’s goal to redistribute those purchases over a longer time period, the AEC sought to steady domestic uranium production. Additionally, starting with its 1959 ban on the purchase of foreign ore and continuing to the 1964 embargo on the enrichment of foreign yellowcake for use in U.S. reactors, the AEC moved to decrease foreign competition. Finally, deregulation of fissionable materials through the Private Ownership of Nuclear Fuels Act in 1964 sought to increase potential markets by making it easier for commercial nuclear power plants to purchase uranium. These policy shifts directly impacted the yellowcake communities. Although the protectionist measures banning sales of foreign uranium in the United States ruined several Canadian communities such as Uranium City, Saskatchewan,2 the decrease in competition barely affected U.S. suppliers because of the depressed market. Likewise, the passage of new environmental regulations in 1969 came so late in the federal program that it had little effect. Nevertheless, continued dependence on uranium and the government market shaped the yellowcake communities until the federal program ended in 1970. Because of their common connection to uranium, the four yellowcake communities reacted similarly to the changing federal programs. First, the new allocation program benefited them all by slowing the boom and allowing each community to catch up with boomtown problems. Further, the program provided new milling schedules for many processors, thus strengthening their tie to the government. Second, when the government moved to sustain the industry through its stretch-out program, mills in each of the four towns signed new agreements that kept their business alive at reduced levels. For the most part, the curtailed production schedules forced layoffs, closings, and a general bust in uranium-dependent communities. Third, when the AEC eased the purchase of yellowcake by private power companies and a new exploration boom began around 1965, all four towns Creatures of Uncle Sam 117 noted the beginning of a second commercial boom. Finally, when delays in power plant construction and the end of the government market in 1970 brought home the reality that new demand would not support the level of production already present, the yellowcake communities experienced more layoffs, closings, and consolidations. The degree to which the four communities shared these common problems depended on the diversification of their economies. Obviously, the changing federal policies were most observable in the one-industry towns of Uravan and Jeffrey City. Grants, although not a company town, experienced similar problems because its five uranium...