INDUSTRY
Expansion in Uranium Two upgrading units and new uranium mill will b e built on Colorado Plateau by Union Carbide Nuclear
MAJOR EXPANSION PROGRAM near Rifle, Colo., will greatly increase Union Carbide Nuclear's uranium production. A new uranium processing mill will be constructed at Rifle, and two ore-receiving stations and chemical upgrading plants to treat the ore and produce higher concentrations of uranium will also be constructed at Slick Rock in San Miguel County, Colorado, and Green River, Emery County, Utah. The company's plans «were revealed following the signing of a contract with AEC. Union Carbide Nuclear now has a processing mill in operation at Rifle. The new mill will be situated about two miles down the Colorado River from the present one and will be of larger capacity. A lack of space and the tailings disposal problem led t o the «decision to .build an entirely new mill at Rifle instead of expanding the present mill (CfidEN, June 18, page 2968). The two new ore receiving and upgrading stations at Slick Rock and Green River will consist of facilities for receiving, crushing, sampling, and beneficiation of crude ore by means of processes developed by Union Carbide Nuclear. The product then will b e sent to the Rifle mill for processing t o an acceptable uranium concentrate for sale to AEC under terms of the company's contract. In addition to relying on companycontrolled ore reserves to supply the new facilities. Union Carbide will purchase a certain amount of amenable ore from independent producers in the respective regions. Construction of the new mill and ore receiving stations is expected to start immediately, and is expected to be completed in the fall of 1957. Union Carbide also owns and operates a large uranium processing mill a t Uravan, Colo., a n d a sampling plant at Thompson, Utah, and owns a number of mines in t h e Colorado Plateau area that are operated on a contract basis. The mills at Uravan and Rifle are among the oldest i n the area and until recent years were used to process vanadium. The company, a subsidiary of Union Carbide and Carbon, was formerly known as U. S. Vanadium.
JA.
Feed and Drugs Get Site This 207-acre farm about 17 miles southwest of Abbott Lab's main plant in North Chicago will serve as a center for studies on feed additives and drugs for poultry, farm animals, and household pets. The projected farm center is. expected to implement and stimulate Abbott's expanding agricultural and veterinary program.
Koppers Seeks Elbow Room Its three-year-old research center at Verona is being replaced on a new site U N D E R THE EXPECTATION that the scope of its research program will be tripled within the next 10 years, Koppers has bought a new site near Pittsburgh for its research center. The company is finding that its "new" research center at Verona, Pa. (C&EN, 1952, page 332), limits its expansion program because additional land is not available. Its new 176-acre tract, located on a high plateau just east of the Pittsburgh Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and north of William Penn Highway, was recently rezoned by the Borough of Monroeville for institutional development. Facilities at Verona, which did not get into full operation until 1953, will be transferred gradually to the new site so that there will be no interruption to a continuing research program. Koppers does not expect that the Verona facilities will be completely given up for at least four years. Voorhees Walker Smith & Smith of New York has been retained to design the new research center. I t has designed research centers in all parts of the U. S., including the Westinghouse Research Center, the Firestone Lab, the Esso Lab, Du Pont Experimental Station, Bell Telephone Labs, and a number of others.
Tentative plans call for a research center consisting of labs, pilot plants, a power plant, an administration building, and auxiliary facilities. These will be constructed over a period of years. Next year construction will begin on the first building—a chemical lab. Ultimately, Koppers expects the entire research center to be on a quadrangle, open at one end and surrounding a parklike area, which may include a sizable lagoon. Parking facilities will be constructed near each of the lab buildings. Sampson-Miller, developer from whom the land is being purchased, already has revealed plans for residential development of adjacent land. It also contemplates development of a nearby civic center to include shopping facilities, schools, and churches.
Now It's Chemicals to Oil Dow joins group of chemical firms acquiring captive sources of petroleum products In the early days of the petrochemicals industry, and now to a lesser extent, oil companies found themselves being drawn into the chemical field. Now there seems to be a trend for chemical companies .to look for a position in the oil industry, or at least a captive source of raw materials. Add Dow-Bay Refining to the list of Monsanto-Lion Oil, and Michigan Chemical-Murphy Petroleum deals (the JUNE
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1956
C&EN
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