CZECHOSLOVAK URANIUM PRODUCITON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500780018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 18
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2006/10/19: CIA-RDP80-00809AO00500780018-3
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
Czechoslovakia
AND TS.. of THE U.E. COOL. AS AM LHOCO. ITI T.ANSSI1SI00 0. EVE.
LATION Of ITS CONTENTS !0 ON .ICEIPt IT AN UNAUTHy*Ij 10 01.10, II
.NON MED ^v L THE NLINOO TI0M Cr THIS .E'04, IS 070. I.I TL e
TIII DOCUMENT CONTAINS INPO.MATIOA AFFECTING TIE I.ATIONAL OtrENSE
or TIC UNITED STATES. .I THIN THE MtA.I.G Or TITLE I. SECTION. TSI
DATE DI SIR. J.% Nov 1953
N. OF PAGES 2
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
1. Great efforts are being made to increase uranium production in the Jachymov area.
At the end of 1952 there were 17 uranium nines in this area. Early in 1953 this
figure was brought up to twenty.
2. The mines are under Soviet management. The Soviet staff is in the building of the
radium batlh of Sv Jachymov. The Soviet head is Eng4'eer gy. The Czech technical
genera'] director is named = ,}, , but it is generally believed he is not a Czech at
all, only another Soviet.
3. About 70,000 laborers worked in the area, a figure which was brought up by 5,000 to
6,000 in the months from March to May 1953. Of this figure, 30,000 are compulsory
laborers, who are given the most dangerous tasks. They lived in wooden barracks in.
a camp surrounded by a double barbed wire fence. At each corner of the area are
observatiou towers with searchlights.
4. The whole area is closely guarded by the state security service; 12,000 to 14,000
OA, theiz being employed.
There were formerly light metal and silver mines in this area, and quantities of mater-
ial dug up was discarded as useless. More recently it has been discovered that these
res..due3 contained uranium in quantities that made them especially easy to exploit.
The preparation of this raw material is carried on in the Bratrstvi factory, the
largest in Jachymov.
6. In handling this material the ores are cut in pieces of two kg. They are ground on
the fourth floor of the factory, and reground to powder on the second floor, mixed with
water And passed through an area where mud and sand are removed. After drying they
are pressed into bricks for transport to the USSR, no further preparation being done
in Czechoslovakia.
7. A Czech state research commission discovered traces of uranium at Liberec in April 1953.
The area !!-as immediately closed off by police. The first drillings took place near tie
city hospital, where a large private villa was seized for the use of a Soviet research
commission.
B. Prospecting for uranium has been going on for some tims in the Trutnov area. In 1952
new mines were opened and a new road to the district was built.
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DISTRIBUT1014 ? 5'i ATE IARMf r.AVY AIR fel
This report is for the use within the USA of the Intelligence components of the Departments or
Agencies indicated above. It is not to be transmitted overseas without the concurrence of the
originating office through the Assistant Director of the Office of Collection and Dissemination, CIA,
II
 Approved For R
SECRET
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9. Another important uranium area is near Bohumin, where 1,000 men were employed in pros-
pecting at the beginning of 1953. The results have been so good that a barracks
complex consisting of 36 buildings was built for laborers and a second barracks com-
plex was begun in July 1953. A railroad spur has been constructed, connecting with
the Trutnov-Nachod line.
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