Pinon Ridge

The uranium mill I mentioned in my last post is what will, if approved, be the Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill. Pinon Ridge is the focus of my Master's thesis, so I will try to keep my summary short since, as you probably figured out, I could spend all day and into the next talking about it. Pinon Ridge may still be in the future, but like with everything else nuclear in the American West, the past is important to understanding it too.

In 2007, Energy Fuels, a Canadian uranium mining and milling company bought a piece of property not far from the town of Naturita, Colorado in western Montrose County. During the early and mid 2000s, the price of uranium took an upswing as a renewed interest in nuclear power drove the price of uranium oxide to nearly $140 a pound - the highest it has ever been. Spurred on by the excellent business environment, Energy Fuels proposed that July to build Pinon Ridge and revitalize the uranium business in western Colorado.

Uranium Mill Tailings Sites (Department of Energy)

During the heyday of uranium extraction, many mills operated in the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Now, only one, the White Mesa Mill in Monticello, Utah, operates.

Earlier this year, Energy Fuels and another Canadian uranium company, Denison Mines, decided to merge their American operations under the Energy Fuels name. That new company now owns White Mesa, Pinon Ridge, and around 20% of the total uranium production in the United States. 

Here is a video report from the New York Times on Pinon Ridge from 2010. While George Glasier no longer runs Energy Fuels, his successor, Stephen Antony has also worked in the uranium industry for decades as well. He also happens to be a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines.

Uranium extraction is such a small business that even the people who are on opposite sides of the issue know each other on a first name basis.

That's where things get complicated.

Ideally, we (collectively) like to label things as right/wrong or good/evil. The problem with Pinon Ridge is there is no "evil corporate empire" or "bunch of environmental activists" to point the blame at. Nuclear history, and the way people interpret it, is the reason one person can call Pinon Ridge a symbol of hope and another a symbol of impending disaster.

Down at the Drive In (We Love the Drive In)

Yes, that is a mesa. More importantly, it's a mesa in western Colorado. For all the glitz and glamor of the ski resort towns like Vail, Aspen, and Steamboat Springs, I will take the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains any day of the week.

Maybe it is because the sheer size of everything is amplified by the dramatic landscapes. Or, maybe it has to do with the fact I was raised on more John Wayne movies than I care to mention...pilgrim.

Really though, it's because a lot of the interesting parts of nuclear history in Colorado happened on the Western Slope. Take this campaign by the town of Naturita, Colorado to restore their iconic Uranium Drive-In sign:

Now, Naturita completed that project, as planned, and had that barbeque (once again, as planned) two Sundays ago.

Refurbished Uranium Drive-In sign (Telluride Daily Planet)

For as long as uranium mining has existed in the United States, Naturita has been central to the business. But, as Tami Lowrance, the Mayor of Naturita said, things haven't been so easy on the community for the last few decades. Since the uranium industry collapsed during the early 1980s, Naturita and the rest of Montrose County, Colorado have been on an unemployment roller coaster.

Let me give you an idea of how bad it has been: since 1990 the unemployment rate has bounced from as low as 3.1% in May of 2007 to as high as 12.8% in March of 2010. In addition, since 1990 Naturita's population has shrunk from about 800 people to just around 550, even when Montrose County's population has doubled to around 41,000.

So you see, the Uranium Drive-In sign isn't just a cultural artifact, it is, like Tami says, a "monument to the hope of our future." That future includes not only uranium mining, but potentially the first uranium mill licensed in the United States since the White Mesa Mill in 1980.