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July 28, 2009

Uranium: A Strange and Fascinating Story

By Kennedy Maize

Jabiru: So Much More than Just Crocodiles

But tourism isn’t why Jabiru exists. Its roots are in uranium. Jabiru was founded and built to serve the Ranger mine, one of the most important uranium mines in the world. Kakadu and the mine were created in 1977 in an uncomfortable political compromise that allowed the designation of the national park, while at the same time allowing the development of the uranium mine. I visited both in mid-2008.


The Ranger mine is one of the most important uranium mines in the world. Courtesy: Ranger Mine

A fine new book, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock that Shaped World, describes the creation of the Ranger mine, Kakadu National Park, and the building of Jabiru as a company town supporting the mine, as well as much more about the global trade in uranium. The book is a well-written, gripping history of the mineral that powers electric generating plants around the world and arms bombs that could destroy cities and countries (and did destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Author Tom Zoellner has done a fine job of explaining how scientists discovered radioactivity, figured out how to use it (for good and evil), and how people came to exploit the natural resource—uranium ore—to make that happen. He also explains how it was used to kill hundreds of thousands of people and produced a nuclear stalemate between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that arguably resulted in the fall of Communism in Europe.

Uranium at the Forefront of Foreign Policy

Today, of course, uranium is part of one of the most important foreign policy questions that faces the world. Iran is embarked on what it claims (and some doubt) is a civilian-only nuclear power program. North Korea openly touts its military development of nuclear power and has exploded at least a couple of small test bombs underground.

As someone who grew up with the uranium boom of the 1950s—my father, a coal mining engineer by heritage and education, prospected some of the most promising uranium finds in the Southwest—I found Zoellner’s book gripping. For anyone who has had business dealings with uranium—from exploration and mining, to refining and concentrating, to enriching, to using nuclear fuel—this book offers fascinating background. Even if you are just interested in 19th- and 20th century history, the book is a good read—entirely worthwhile.

Zoellner demonstrates that the story of uranium isn’t just about how to find the stuff and make it into fuel or bombs. It’s about science, politics, culture, history, and a checkered future that includes the possibility of unimaginable warfare or a path to a carbon-reduced economy.

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