Maintaining the Uranium Resource Assessment Data System and assessing the 1992 US uranium potential resources. Final report

Abstract

For 1992, estimates of US undiscovered uranium resources were generated using revised economic index values (current to December 1992) in the Uranium Resources Assessment Data (URAD) System`s cost model. The endowments associated with the Estimated Additional Resources (EAR) and Speculative Resources (SR) values for all regions are unchanged from the 1991 values. Although higher 1992 indexes resulted in increased costs, the mean values for the $30-, $50-, and $ 100-per pound U308 forward-cost EAR category resources for 1992 show no significant changes when compared to the values in 1991. The mean values for the $30-, $50-, and $100-per pound U{sub 3}O{sub 8} forward-cost SR forward-cost category show decreases of 4, 3, and 1 percent, in the three categories respectively. Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Energy Information Administration (EIA), US Department of Energy, and the US Geological Survey (USGS), US Department of the Interior, the USGS develops estimates of uranium endowment for selected geological environments in the United States. New estimates of endowment are used to update the URAD System that is maintained for the EIA by the USGS. Endowment estimates were added for the solution-collapse breccia pipe uranium deposits in the Grand Canyon region in 1989 andmore » for young surficial uranium deposits in the Flodelle Creek area in Washington in 1991. Estimates of uranium endowment for roll-front uranium deposits in northwestern Nebraska and adjacent states are nearly completed and will be added in 1994. Assessment of undiscovered uranium endowment in new areas by the USGS will be discontinued in FY 1995 due to phasing out of the uranium resources program in FY 1994. Improvements to the URAD System included automating the procedures necessary to generate the assessment reports. Data retrieval from the URAD System can now be performed using dBase IV version 1.5 data base management system.« less