Yellowcake Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West

Yellowcake Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West provides the first detailed analysis of the four mining and milling communities at the center of the twentieth century uranium booms: Moab, Utah; Grants, New Mexico; Uravan, Colorado; and Jeffrey City, Wyoming. Amundson brings these places to life with stories of local boosters who hit on uranium as their key to economic growth. Although many boasted of new refineries that provided hundreds of jobs or "Atomic Motels" and "Uranium Cafes" that epitomized their success, few realized the inherent problems of coping with major population swings, infrastructure worries, creeping federal dependency, or the health hazards of underground mines and mill tailings. Amundson follows the ups and downs of these uranium towns over a forty year period from uranium's origins as atomic bomb material in the early days of the Manhattan Project and the 1950s boom to its use in nuclear power plants, the Three Mile Island accident, and the 1980s bust. He examines the interplay between ever-changing federal uranium mining policies and the uranium industry, and its effects on each community. Yellowcake Towns provides a look at the supply side of the atomic age, and it will appeal to historians of mining, community, and the West, as well as anyone interested in the story of atomic energy in the United States.