Gas Hill uranium tailings pond

Abstract

Photograph showing the Gas Hill uranium tailings pond, which is located in central Wyoming along the southeastern margin of the Wind River Basin. Uranium was first discovered at Gas Hill by Neil and Maxine McNeice in 1953, but the earliest development of the district's ore was quite slow because new drilling techniques were needed to mine uranium deposits that were located below the water table. Many methods were tried, but frozen core drilling and bucket augering proved to be the most reliable. There were three uranium production peaks in Wyoming. The first peak occurred in 1961 when uranium was being mined and sold to the Atomic Energy Commission for use in making atomic weapons. Production peaked again in 1973 when uranium was needed for the first phase of domestic nuclear power plant construction. The third peak occurred in 1980 as nuclear fuel was being stockpiled for future worldwide nuclear power plant operations. Overall about 12% of the uranium produced in the United ...