Radium and Uranium: Evolution of a Company and a Policy

ROBERT BOTHWELL Radium and Uranium: Evolution ofa Company anda Policy JUSTBEFORE NOON,Ottawa time, on Monday, 6 August, x945, the Britishhighcommissioner sentanotetotheministerof munitions and supplyin hisown handwriting.'The thing hasgoneoff,' Malcolm MacDonaldwrote to C.D. Howe. Howe movedquickly.Dictatinga hasty messagefor Prime Minister MackenzieKing, he sent his secretaries intothefilesto pull outa press release whichthepresident of the NationalResearch Council,C.J.Mackenzie,had preparedfor the occasion. MackenzieKing, who was presidingat a dominionprovincial conference, toldHowetocheckoutthe authenticity of the news; onlyafterconfirmation wasestablished didCanada's leaderrise in his placeto tell the assembled statesmenand politiciansthat an atomic bombhadbeendroppedonJapanbytheallies, andthatCanada hadplayeda rolein developing The broadoutlinesof Canada's partin developing anatomicbomb arewellknown.In •942 theBritishasked theCanadiangovernment to securecontrol of a uranium-producingcompany,EldoradoGold Mines Limited, and to produce uranium for allied consumption. Shortlythereafter,theBritishreturnedtoOttawawithaproposal that an atomic researchteam join Canadian scientists in secretwork. Canadaagreed,andfromitsagreement derivedtheestablishment of an atomiclaboratoryin Montreal and, at the end of the war, the construction of an atomic reactor at Chalk River. It is also well known thattheseveralatomicprojects did not gosmoothly, andthatfriction developed amongthe British,Americans, andCanadians concerning the sharingof atomicsecrets and eventhe distributionof supplies of uranium. Instead of the usual messageof warm gratitude and • Thisaccount isbased onthatinJames Eayrs, In Defence ofCanada, III: Peacemaking andDeterrence (Toronto•972),•'74-5. Canadian Historical Review, I•XIV,•,, •983 ooo8'3755/83/o6oo-o ••'7$o•.•,5/o¸ University of TorontoPress 128 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW appreciation, C.D. Howe,theministerincharge, learnedthatWinston Churchillconsidered that he had 'soldthe BritishEmpiredownthe river. '• Discussions of the atomiccontroversies of forty yearsago have usuallycentredon broadquestions of atomicpolicy,or havereferred to the pressures and misunderstandings of wartimein thesearch for explanations of Canada's atomicbehaviour.Theseexplanations are notwithoutmerit,butasweshallseetheyarenotcomplete. A broader accountof Canada'satomicexploitsmust delveinto what is often treatedasnuclearpre-history.And for thatwemustturn to geology. 'The Canadianshield,'a miningexecutive ruefullyremarked,'has mademoregeniuses thananythingelsein our history,'The Canadian Shield,as official reports and mining handbookshave continually stressed, isa greatstorehouse of mineralriches.The •927-8 Canada Year Book, for example,listedeverythingfrom antimonyto zinc,and from actinolitetoquartzin itsenumerationof thedominion's mineral products. In termsofvalue,themostimportantCanadian mineralwas gold,anditwastosearch forgoldthataCanadian miningcompany was organized in 1926. 3 Eldorado Gold Mines Limited, like many other Canadiangoldmining companies,was doomedto disappointment. Its Manitoba propertywasadud,andalloperations ceased afterayear.Itsprincipal shareholders were two brothersfrom the Ottawavalley,Gilbertand Charles LaBine, and while Charles held the fort at head office in Toronto,Gilbert,in a classic Canadianminingexploit,tookwhatwas left of the company's treasuryand went prospecting. LaBinefound what he wanted,though it may not havebeenexactlywhathe was lookingfor. On theshores of GreatBearLake,aboutthirtymilessouth of the Arctic Circle, he staked a setof claims. He had found a mixture of cobalt and silver, but he had also found what turned out to be the firsteconomic depositof radioactivesubstances in Canada. 4 Between •93o, the date of his discovery,and 1933 the LaBine brothersreorganizedtheircompany, althoughtheydidnotchange its name. A mine was developedon Great Bear Lake, to produce pitchblende ore andsilver.To handlethepitchblende, arefinerywas established in Port Hope, Ontario, closeto sources of powerand chemicals. To design andrun therefinery,theLaBines hiredaFrench Thebestoveralltreatment of Canadian atomic policy duringthewaristobefound in Eayrs, In Defence ofCanada, u•; C.P.Stacey, Arms, MenandGovernments (Ottawa •97o);Wilfrid Eggleston, Canada's Nuclear Story (Toronto•965);andMargaret Gowing, BritainandAtomic Energy (London•964). The quotation isfromaninterview withWilliamGilchrist, Ottawa, May•982. Thestory oftheGreatBearLakediscovery, astoldbyGilbertLaBine, istobefound in D.M. LeBourdais, Canada andthe Atomic Revolution (Toronto•959),43-5ø- RADIUM AND URANIUM 129 chemist,MarcelPochon.Pochon's refineryproducedthe final,valuableproduct :radium.To makeradium,it wasnecessary torefinethe pitchblende oreintotwosubstances - radium,whichwasvaluable, and uranium,whichwasnot.Radiumwasusedin industryandmedicine. In the 19•,os and 193osit wasregardedasthe wonderdrug, thebest hopeofacureforcancer. It wasalso amonopoly product, madealmost exclusively bya Belgianfirm withminesin theCongoanda refinery near Antwerp. This firm, the Union Mini/•re du Haut-Katanga,had established thepriceforradiumat$75,ooo agram;anditdroveoutof the market, and out of business, thosewho dared to challengeits monopoly.The reasonit coulddo sowasthe fabulous richness of its Shinkolobwe mine in the Congo'sKatangaprovince.Suchwasthe gradeof theorefrom Katangaandtheease withwhichit wasmined thatnoothercompanycouldhopeto compete. 5 This wasa lessonthat Eldorado soonlearned. Between 1934 and 1938thepriceforradiumdropped precipitately, from$75,ooo agram tobetween $•o,oooand$•5,ooo.That wasonlythebeginning, Union MiniS. re officialstold Eldorado'semissaries. They were preparedto takethepricedowntozero,andrelyonpriceandbusiness pressures to do the rest. Fortunately,they added, there wasan alternative.If Eldoradowouldmakea business arrangementwith Union...