Uranium Boom

AP via Centre Daily Times (PA):

Suddenly, nuclear power is back in demand as a relatively cheap, reliable and emissions-free solution to the world's insatiable demand for energy. Even some leading environmentalists have endorsed nuclear power as an antidote to global warming. More than 50 nuclear plants are planned or under construction in a dozen countries, according to U.S. and international nuclear agencies.

The nuclear comeback has reinvigorated a Western mining industry that, during the 1950s and again in the 1970s, was the stuff of legends. Uranium claims -- which grant an exclusive right to mine a piece of federal land -- were bought and sold like stock.

The successive booms made millionaires and losers and overnight towns.