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The earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011, permanently disabled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

According to some pundits in the days and weeks afterward, the global nuc­lear industry was bound to be another victim of the disaster.

Although the ultimate effects of Fuk­ushima on the construction of new nuc­lear facilities remains to be seen, it is now believed that a curtailment in worldwide exploration investment has be­gun – a development that could create a global shortfall in uranium supplies for currently operating nuclear facilities. Despite this, various uranium ex­ploration campaigns within the United States are ongoing. This article offers a brief over­view of some of these.

U.S. uranium exploration is currently being conducted by many firms and joint venture projects, often in­volving regions that were originally mined in the 1950s to 1980s. His­toric­ally, most production in the United States has been in Wyoming and New Mexico, although Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Texas also added to it. United States ranks ninth in the world for known uranium resources with 207,000 tons of uranium; in 2010, U.S. uranium production grew by 14 percent.

Various companies are in various stages of uranium exploration, production and restoration in Texas. For ex­ample, Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC), based in Corpus Christi, Texas, has op­erations in five south Texas counties, and has been quite active in the months leading up to and following the Japan incident. Last November, UEC started drilling at its Salvo Project in Bee County. The aim of this program was to verify and expand on the historic re­source by drilling new areas of mineralization. Excellent early phase exploration drilling results were reported the following month. Also in November 2010, UEC began uranium production using in-situ recovery (ISR) methods at its Palangana Project – the first new ISR uranium mine in the US in five years.

The following month, the company initiated operations at its Hobson Pro­cessing Facility, processing the first shipment of uranium-loaded resins from Palangana. In April 2011, following an independent technical evaluation, the Salvo Project was reported to contain approximately 2.8 million pounds of U3O8. Nor have the events in March slowed UEC down; in May, the company announced a merger to acquire the Anderson Property in Yavapai County, Ariz., comprised of 289 contiguous, un­patented lode mining and placer claims covering 5,785 acres.

“Even though the unfortunate incident in Japan has severely affected the uranium market in general, our mining campaign continues at full force,” UEC CEO Amir Adnani. “As evidenced by the fact that we have recently begun extracting uranium from our properties in South Texas, our business is sol­id and we believe there is a promising future for this industry in general and our initiatives in particular.”

Several other exploration and mining projects are ongoing. These in­clude:

• Australian-American Mining Corp. Ltd. of West Perth, Australia, completed in April its acquisition of Lone Star LLC, in a joint venture agreement in­volving the acquisition, exploration of a number of uranium properties ac­ross the state. The major project of the venture, the North Trend project, is reported by the company to have significant potential.
• Titan Uranium Inc., based in Van­cou­ver, has completed a pre-feasibility study at its Sheep Mountain Uran­ium Project in Wyoming, which has been estimated to contain 13.8 million tons of U3O8. The company’s goal is to discover uranium deposits by ex­plor­ing 1 million acres of land in Utah, Wyoming and Canada.
• Mesa Exploration Corp., also based in Vancouver, is developing its Lisbon Valley Project in the Lisbon Valley Mining District in Utah. Mesa is pursuing the concept that half of the district has remained buried and undiscovered on the down-faulted, eastern flank of the Lisbon Valley anticline. Meanwhile, the company’s Moon­shine Springs project, located in Mo­have County, Ariz., consist of 1,770 acres. The project is permitted for drilling; previously Mesa drilled two explora­tion holes and plans step-out and reconnaissance drilling programs.
• Cameco Resources Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Saskatoon-based Cameco, op­­erates the Smith Ranch-Highland mine in eastern Wyoming’s Powder River basin and the Crow Butte mine in Neb­raska; the company is forecasting an increase in production levels from these mines and adjacent properties to 1,770 tons by next year. Other uranium ex­ploration projects are currently being conducted by Uranium Resources Inc. of Lewisville, Texas; Uranium One of Toronto and Jo­hannesburg; and Ur­an­erz of Casper, Wyo.

It should be noted that some uranium initiatives are encountering turbulence. For example, the Obama administration has drafted a proposal that could prohibit new mining claims for 20 years on approximately 4,000 square kilometers near the Grand Canyon; as of April 2011, several environmental groups had sent U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar a letter urging protection for the Canyon. The mining industry is opposing this Canyon proposal, claiming the U.S. should promote domestic uranium mining as a means to energy independence.

Denison Mines Corp. of Toronto is al­ready extracting uranium near the Can­yon and hopes to expand operations.

Additionally, in May 2011, the group Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining filed a petition seeking to overturn a Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision to grant a mining license to Hydro Resources Inc., which has plans to develop claims near two Navajo comm­unities in New Mexico. The state’s Min­ing and Minerals Division is reviewing five pending uranium exploration permits and two pending mining permits; another three exploration permits have been approved in recent years.

As these details illustrate, uranium ex­ploration in the United States – while facing a partial slowdown due to events in Japan — is a still viable enterprise.

This judgment is fueled not only by the recent successes witnessed by UEC and others, but also by the fact that the Ob­ama administration, three days after the disaster, reiterated its support of a new generation of nuclear power plants as part of the President’s “clean energy” agenda. As nuclear power re­mains a compelling energy option, it is fair to speculate that such exploration will continue.

Sebastian Thaler is a freelance science and technology writer based in New York City.