"WIPP was constructed for disposal of defense-generated TRU waste from DOE sites around the country. TRU waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, residues, debris, soil and other items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other man-made radioactive elements. The waste is permanently disposed of in rooms mined in an underground salt bed layer over 2000 feet from the surface."
For many people in New Mexico the atomic age was one of promise. New Mexico took pride in the scientific developments taking place in the state and the roll of Los Alamos in ending WWII. There was the possibility of atomic energy to run factories and provide electricity for homes.
"In the next ten years, atomic energy will become an important part of the nation's economy" Albuquerque Journal Newspaper Archives April 11, 1954 Page 142
Atomic industries brought jobs. In 1956 over 32,000 New Mexicans were employed in atomic energy fields in Los Alamos, Sandia laboratory, clinics, construction, and mining. A quarter of a million people moved to New Mexico between 1950 and 1956.
Headline from Daily News Nov 08, 1956, Page 32, Alamogordo, New Mexico, US
"Having harnessed the atom in secret for war, the federal government turned enthusiastically to providing governmental and nongovernmental researchers, corporations, and farmers with new tools for peace--radioisotopes--mass-produced with the same machinery that produced essential materials for the nation's nuclear weapons. Radioisotopes, the newly established Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) promised, would create new businesses, improve agricultural production, and through "human uses" in medical research, save lives." - The Atomic Century, The Department of Energy
Image, top: Amtrak ad published in New Mexico Magazine, (May 5th, 1954, pg. 4).
Image, center: Map detail from New Mexico Magazine (March, 1956, pg.11) ad for Alamagordo. The Trinity test site is marked.
Image, bottom: Detail from Atomic Postcards (Intellect/University of Chicago Press) edited by John O’Brian, and Jeremy Borsus.
Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I)
"On December 20, 1951, the EBR-I produced the first usable amounts of electricity created by nuclear means; in July 1963, it was the first reactor to achieve a self-sustaining chain reaction using plutonium instead of uranium as the major component in the fuel. In addition, the EBR-I was the first reactor to demonstrate the feasibility of using liquid metal at high temperatures as a reactor coolant."- National Historic Landmarks
A Parade insert in the January 31st, 1954 Albuquerque Journal suggested great strides in atomic medicine for the treatment of cancer and the development of portable X-ray machines. It described the research as the "most exciting frontier of medical research."
"Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty that uses radioactive tracers (radiopharmaceuticals) to assess bodily functions and to diagnose and treat disease. Specially designed cameras allow doctors to track the path of these radioactive tracers. Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography or SPECT and Positron Emission Tomography or PET scans are the two most common imaging modalities in nuclear medicine."- National Institutes of Health
In 1955 over 3 million dollars worth of uranium was mined in New Mexico and that was a promising for source of royalties and leases for the state.
Mining jobs increased from 100,927 in 1950 to 124,737 in 1955. Of these 1,091 were in San Juan County (New Mexico labor force report 1955-56).
To encourage development of mineral extraction, the New Mexico Bureau of Mines & Mineral Resources published resource maps showing locations of known uranium deposits.
