The United Nuclear Corporation is a diversified energy conglomerate that originally specialized in nuclear energy design, engineering, development and management. The company has been plagued by environmental scandals, particularly in regard to its uranium processing facilities and the environmental pollution that surrounds such facilities in New Mexico.

United Nuclear Corporation was formed in March 1961 as a joint venture between Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, Mallinckrodt Corporation of America and Nuclear Development Corporation of America. The assets of Nuclear Development Corporation were absorbed into the organization, and Olin became the controlling corporate entity. In 1961, the newly formed UNC had 1,400 employees.

The purpose of the merger was to enter into the new nuclear power and production sector. This included both civilian nuclear applications, such as reactor design and operation at power generation facilities, and raw material production for deployment in government applications, such as experimental reactors, plutonium production facilities and nuclear weapon design and production.

The original portfolio of the company included reactor system design, manufacture of nuclear fuel materials, reactor and core fabrications, fuel management, cold scrap processing, isotopes and hot radiation energy sources.

Mergers and Acquisitions

A year after the company originally formed, United Nuclear Corporation merged with Sabre-Pinon Corporation of Santa Fe, New Mexico. This company held majority stakes in several uranium mines and mills in New Mexico and provided an entry point for UNC into the raw materials side of the nuclear production business. At the time of the acquisition of Sabre-Pinon, UNC was already was producing nuclear fuel materials and nuclear reactor cores at plants and laboratories in Connecticut, Missouri and New York. However, with new facilities in New Mexico, the company would have easier access to raw materials.

In 1965, UNC created a joint business venture with Douglas Aircraft to form Douglas United Nuclear, which contracted with the Atomic Energy Commission (the forerunner of today's Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to operate the fuel production facilities in Richland, Washington, on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. These facilities were used primarily to produce weapons-grade plutonium in five reactors.

With this move, United Nuclear Corporation became the largest supplier of nuclear weapons material to the government of the United States.

Church Rock Environmental Disaster

United Nuclear Corporation is responsible for a uranium recovery facility near Gallup, New Mexico, known as Church Rock. The facility is the focus of a range of protests, lawsuits, and regulatory actions on the part of the U.S. government that began in the late 1970s and have lasted to the present time.

The Church Rock facility was a conventional uranium mill site used for the processing of uranium ore into usable uranium for enrichment or deployment in civilian nuclear reactors. The site includes a former ore processing mill and a tailings disposal area, which cover about 25 and 100 acres, respectively.

The site was opened in 1977 and was operated as a uranium mill until 1982. The facility was designed to process 4,000 tons of uranium ore per day using acid-leach solvent methods. The process resulted in 3.5 million tons of "tailings" over the years of operation, the waste product of ore processing. These tailings included a large quantity of toxic and slightly radioactive material that has, over time, ruptured the earthen dams designed to contain the large piles. This material has subsequently seeped into the ground water.

Due to this leakage, the Environmental Protection Agency has included the facility on the list of Superfund sites and is in the process of performing cleanup. The facility is scheduled to be permanently closed and sealed in December of 2011.

Asbestos Risks

Through the 1970s, it was standard practice for factories, mills, power plants and work sites, including United Nuclear Corporation, to utilize the naturally occurring, fibrous mineral known as asbestos because of its resistance to heat, flame and electrical current. Exposure to asbestos may result in the development of serious illnesses such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. The greatest risk of contracting these conditions occurs when asbestos-containing products release particles into the environment where they may be inhaled or ingested.

Today, we understand the risks of inhaling asbestos, and laws ensure the well-being of people whose jobs put them in contact with friable asbestos. However, in the past, laborers without proper safety gear commonly worked in areas filled with airborne asbestos. Employees often brought dust containing asbestos home on their work clothes when decontamination procedures were not offered at the company, unknowingly exposing family and friends to the toxic mineral.

As conditions like mesothelioma often don't develop until many years after asbestos exposure first occurs, men and women who worked for United Nuclear Corporation, as well as their family members, decades ago may wish to alert their doctor of past asbestos exposure to aid in the diagnosis of an asbestos-related disease, should a condition such as mesothelioma be present. If you worked for United Nuclear Corporation or have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, please click here and Asbestos.com will send you a complimentary comprehensive packet about the cancer, symptoms, treatment and legal options.

Sources

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "Notice: Decommissioning plans; sites: United Nuclear Corp., 43822-43823 [E6-12445] Nuclear Regulatory Commission." scribd.com. 1 May 2008. http://www.scribd.com/doc/2806292/Notice-Decommissioning-plans-sites-United-Nuclear-Corp
Harvard Business School. "United Nuclear Corporation." library.hbs.edu. 2008. http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/lehman/chrono.html?company=united_nuclear_corporation

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