As late as 1962 the AEC was talking of a demand by 1980 of only about 13, 000 tons annually, and this wasn't very exciting to an industry that in 1961 was producing about 18, 000 tons for sale to the AEC. But we misjudged both the ingenuity of the equipment manufacturers and the willingness of the utility industry to accept the gamble involved in entering into purchase commitments for new plants. By 1964 the AEC revised its estimates of cumulative demand through 1980 from 70, 000 tons of U3O8 to 140, 000 tons, and in 1966 the purchase of nuclear plants actually exceeded the order for conventional plants and again the uranium estimates have been revised upward to a cumulative demand by 1980 of 172, 000 tons and an annual requirement in 1980 of 28, 000 tons. Some other forecasts, including that of General Electric, indicate that 19 80 demand will be even greater. The rapidity of this change has caught the uranium mining industry with its pants at half mast. The peak reserves of 240, 000 tons in 1959 have dwindled to 141, 000 tons at an $ 8 price and will drop to 111,000 tons by 1970 to service existing commitments, assuming no new discoveries and ignoring perhaps 50, 000 tons in the stockpile. If the uranium industry is to meet the indicated requirements through 1980 and provide a 10-year forward reserve, we must find new reserves in the next 13 years of 400, 000 to 500, 000 tons, substantially more than we have so far discovered. I have no doubts that this can and will be accomplished but not at the prices of $ 4. 50 or $ 5. 00 a pound once talked about. The $ 8 price some day may prove to have been historically cheap, for we have found the uranium - 3 -