by 1960 and production skyrocketed from a paltry 824 tons in 1952 to a peak of 17, 500 tons in 1961. In the height of the boom over 7 million shares of penny stock were traded in a day in 1954. The program was almost too successful and by 1958 the Atomic Energy Commission was concerned that it had sired a monster that would eat it out of house and home if its growth was not soon curtailed. With sufficient uranium in sight to produce enough bombs to blow up the world, it sentenced the uranium mining industry to a lingering death by redefining its procurement policies to limit commitments to contracts then in effect or to be negotiated on ore bodies developed as of 1958. By withdrawing the only market then in existence, exploration for new uranium deposits ceased overnight and the only additions to the reserves thereafter came from drilling to delineate existing ore bodies and prepare them for extraction. From then until now the uranium industry has been living off the reserves that it accumulated in the early years when it had an eager buyer. Later in 1962 the government postponed the death sentence from 1966 to 1970 by offering its stretchout program to those producers who were willing to accept it and had the reserves to do so. Eleven mills did accept this program in the hope that by 1970 a civilian demand of sufficient proportions would be developed to allow the industry to live after the government purchases ceased. Under the stretchout program annual production from 1967 through 1970 was set at 8, 000 tons -- less than 50% of - 5 -