Seeking information on thorium work in Albany, Oregon

Dear Mr. Stith,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located Radioactive Ore Testing Correspondence and Uranium Program Files, 1946 - 1952 in the Records of the U.S. Bureau of Mines (Record Group 70) that mentions Albany, Oregon. For more information about these records, please email the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) at Archives2reference@nara.gov.

We also located 421 results related to Thorium,  227 record series created by the Bureau of Mines from the 1940s through the 1960s, and 512 record series created by the Atomic Energy Commission through the 1960s in various record groups.  You may wish to review these descriptions to see if any might be relevant to your research. For more information about particular records, please email the reference unit listed as the contact in the Catalog description.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2 and the various other NARA units. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Next, we searched online and found the following web pages related to the lab or to thorium work.

• https://fossil.energy.gov/facilities/alrc/index.html
• https://federallabs.org/labs/national-energy-technology-laboratory-netl-albany-or
• https://www.energy.gov/lm/albany-oregon-site
• https://web.archive.org/web/20091210064935/http://www.netl.doe.gov/about/arc_history.html
• https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/4123326

Finally, it is possible that many of the relevant records are still in the custody of the Department of Energy.  You may wish to contact the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information as well as the DOE Office of Public Information.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!