Yellowcake Road
Cotter Corporation’s unfortunate journey from Nuclear Production to Nuclear Waste Recycle
by
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COMMONWEALTH
Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) bought the ARCO interests including Schwartzwalder. In the deal they acquired a financially distressed mill; a uranium operation that had knowingly allowed contaminants to escape the site and contaminate
At the Illinois Public Utilities Commission hearing where their procedures and ethics were in question, ComEd of Chicago bragged about “getting Cotter for a song and writing the lyrics.” But that was in
ComEd wanted uranium source and considered the Schwartzwalder Mine near Golden,
At time of purchase of the Schwartzwalder and the sale to Commonwealth Edison, Cotter claimed to produce U3O8 at $4.00 per pound. Commonwealth Edison wrote a contract with their solely owned producer to buy Yellow Cake at a below market price. ComEd then pushed foreign producers to sell them Yellow Cake at the same or below Cotter’s price. Vying for a
ComEd didn’t want raw material and cared little for the floundering mill. Tax depletion on the Schwartzwalder Mine on Ralston Creek near Golden, CO was a financial plum. Then it occurred to someone, possibly Marcott; that Cotter held one of only three U3O8 licensed production plants in the
ComEd restarted operations. There were three laboratory sectors within the new Cotter facility. As Chief Chemist, Lynn Boughton supervised the Analytical Lab, Dale Lesher supervised the Metallurgical Lab, and Don Anderson (no relation to R.O.
The laboratory complex continued to be a congenial part of the operation with shifters and maintenance personnel vying for transfer. After Marcott moved to
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About the Book
These are but a few of my recollections of the Cotter Mill from its 1958 Fremont County, Colorado inauguration to the year 2000 when General Atomics obtained the mill, four sections of industrial and rural real estate, assets and obligations for the sum of $1,000,000, or the value of a couple of neighboring homes. Contrary to popular opinion, early Cotter was not welcomed with open arms by Lynn Boughton was Cotter’s Assistant Chief Chemist from 1958 to 1964 and Chief Chemist until he resigned in 1979. My memory is reasonably good, but certainly not flawless. My comments should not be taken as fact but as probably not too far wrong. After ***** The future rests on the past but new ownerships, new administration, new bureaucracies always believe they start with a “clean slate” ignoring the past as they persist in repeating the same mistakes. In dealing with nuclear materials, mistakes affect, not only fortunes, but the health and property of neighbors and future generations. Deyon Boughton
About the Author
A few years after
Deyon wrote
Whistle-blowing was the last thing Boughtons would have ever thought of but it became something they could not avoid. Later, when a young friend told of a concern and asked if he should become a whistle blower, he was told, “Don’t unless you cannot not.” Boughtons found themselves involved with a community issue they could not not act upon.