The increasing demand for uranium as reactor fuel requires the addition of sizable new domestic reserves. One of the largest potential sources of low-grade uranium ore is the Chattanooga shale — a formation in Tennessee and neighboring states that has not been mined conventionally because it is expen¬sive and environmentally disadvantageous to do so. An in situ process, on the other hand, might be used to extract uranium from this formation without the attendant problems of conventional mining. We have suggested developing such a process, in which fracturing, retorting, and pressure leaching might be used to extract the uranium. The potential advantages of such a process are that capital investment would be reduced, handling and disposing of the ore would be avoided, and leaching reagents would be self-generated from air and water.
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