Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Program. Volume III. Environmental Statement Page: 59 of 622
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In any case, uranium resources minable at a given cost are finite and will not
expand indefinitely in response to exploration effort. A further concern to many
evolves from the short time frame in which exploration must be done to keep up with
demand, whatever the resource viewpoint. To meet projected needs at reasonable
costs, little time remains to effect expansion of U.S. resources.
U.S. Exploration History
Some insight as to where the development of uranium resources in the United States
stands can be gained by reviewing exploration history and what has been accom-
plished. Since the late 1940's over 700,000 holes amounting to about 210 million
ft have been drilled in the search for uranium in the U.S. Figure 6A.1-6 illustrates
historic annual drilling activity including additions to reserves per foot of
drilling, a measure of exploration success.
Discovery rates in the 1950's increased as new districts were found and the geology
of uranium became understood. Discovery rates of over ten pounds U308 per foot were
reached. More complete delineation of uranium districts and lack of discovery of
new districts in the late fifties and early sixties reduced discovery rates to less
than 5 lb/ft. In the second exploration surge in the late 1960's and early 1970's,
much higher exploration levels were reached but with less success than in the
1950's. Furthermore, recent exploration has produced quite variable results. For
example, rates for the U.S. as a whole over the 1967-1971 period, which involved
103 million ft of drilling, averaged 3.8 pounds of U308 per foot drilled. However,
the average for the State of New Mexico was 9.6 lb/ft, while that for the rest of
the country was only 2.4 lb/ft. Thus, in most of the geographic area where the
large 1967-1971 exploration effort was performed, success ratios have been very much
less than previously experienced.
Geographically, drilling has been quite widespread in the West, as illustrated in
Figure 6A.1-8. Twenty-one states have had some drilling effort for uranium.
An additional index of exploration effort is shown in Figure 6A.1-9, which locates
prospects examined by AEC or USGS geologists during the 1950's. A preliminary
reconnaisance report was prepared after each of these brief investigations. Over
7,000 examinations were made in 42 states including Alaska involving a diversity of
geologic environments over large land areas. The actual area prospected during
this period obviously would be considerably larger. In addition, exploration has
been conducted through gamma-ray surveys and water sampling.6A.1-14
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Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Program. Volume III. Environmental Statement, report, December 1, 1974; Washington, District of Columbia. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1019855/m1/59/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.