Uranium Frenzy: Saga of the Nuclear West
In a perceptive and touching narrative, Ringholz ( The Wilderness Handbook ) recalls that the Federal government in the early 1950s subsidized uranium mining for the coming atomic age. The policy set off a frenzy of prospecting and speculation in Utah and Colorado that resembled an old-time gold rush. Dogged adventurers made, and later lost, millions on a single strike. Big companies bought out small claim holders by the dozens while other investors gambled frantically on uranium "penny stocks." Meanwhile, health experts who detected longterm cancer-causing radiation in the mines and urged safety measures were thwarted by greed, inertia and bureaucratic red tape. Hundreds of miners died; many families received no compensation. Ringholz intrigues the reader with an expert blending of science, adventure, industry mania, finance, human triumph and despairand shameful official neglect.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.