Word: mined
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...land of vast evergreen forests laced with lakes and streams, windblown sand ridges--and the world's richest deposits of uranium. From this Canadian wilderness, centered on the Athabasca Basin, fully a quarter of the world's annual supply of uranium is unearthed, most of it from a single mine called McArthur River. In a world increasingly concerned about the flow and price of oil from the Middle East, demand for the mine's controversial product is quietly rising...
McArthur River isn't much to look at from above ground--just a cluster of green, corrugated-metal buildings, a company lodge and an airstrip--but the mine is an industrial marvel. The rocks underground average 21% pure uranium, with pockets as concentrated as 80%, far richer than the typical 1% deposits at other mines. The ore at McArthur River is the richest in the world and is far too radioactive to handle conventionally; the miners extract it by remote control, using giant boring machines and scoop trams instead of pickaxes and shovels...
Even as the debate over long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel raged during the 1990s, U.S. uranium consumption rose about 35% over the decade, to about 55 million lbs. in 2001. That makes Cameco's bet on McArthur River--and the firm's nearby mine, Cigar Lake, which could begin production around mid-decade--look a lot less foolish...
...mammals have been flown from their home base in San Diego to Bahrain to see whether they can help protect U.S. ships against Iraqi frogmen and mines. Living in pens on land next to the Persian Gulf, the sea lions, which average around 350 lbs. each, will hop aboard boats and dive into the water near the ships they are protecting. Their keen eyes and hearing allow them to detect intruders or mines far better than their human counterparts. A sea lion can swim up to 25 m.p.h. for short bursts, enabling it to nab an underwater foe by snaring...
...Jampur's ger sits at the base of a hill to protect it from the wind. Not far away lies a trail of cow skeletons that have been picked clean and now blend seamlessly into the snow. "Those were mine," says Jampur. "They died last winter. There was no meat on the bones, so we just took the skins and left the rest." Inside, his ger is warm and smells like a wet horse. There's a shrine with carved animals and Buddhist prayer maps, and a lightbulb and television are wired to a car battery. For weather reports...