<P> The Eldorado Mine at Port Radium was a source of uranium ore . </P> <P> Although DuPont's preferred designs for the nuclear reactors were helium cooled and used graphite as a moderator, DuPont still expressed an interest in using heavy water as a backup, in case the graphite reactor design proved infeasible for some reason . For this purpose, it was estimated that 3 short tons (2.7 t) of heavy water would be required per month . The P - 9 Project was the government's code name for the heavy water production program . As the plant at Trail, which was then under construction, could produce 0.5 short tons (0.45 t) per month, additional capacity was required . Groves therefore authorized DuPont to establish heavy water facilities at the Morgantown Ordnance Works, near Morgantown, West Virginia; at the Wabash River Ordnance Works, near Dana and Newport, Indiana; and at the Alabama Ordnance Works, near Childersburg and Sylacauga, Alabama . Although known as Ordnance Works and paid for under Ordnance Department contracts, they were built and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers . The American plants used a process different from Trail's; heavy water was extracted by distillation, taking advantage of the slightly higher boiling point of heavy water . </P> <P> The key raw material for the project was uranium, which was used as fuel for the reactors, as feed that was transformed into plutonium, and, in its enriched form, in the atomic bomb itself . There were four known major deposits of uranium in 1940: in Colorado, in northern Canada, in Joachimsthal in Czechoslovakia, and in the Belgian Congo . All but Joachimstal were in allied hands . A November 1942 survey determined that sufficient quantities of uranium were available to satisfy the project's requirements . Nichols arranged with the State Department for export controls to be placed on uranium oxide and negotiated for the purchase of 1,200 short tons (1,100 t) of uranium ore from the Belgian Congo that was being stored in a warehouse on Staten Island and the remaining stocks of mined ore stored in the Congo . He negotiated with Eldorado Gold Mines for the purchase of ore from its refinery in Port Hope, Ontario, and its shipment in 100 - ton lots . The Canadian government subsequently bought up the company's stock until it acquired a controlling interest . </P> <P> While these purchases assured a sufficient supply to meet wartime needs, the American and British leaders concluded that it was in their countries' interest to gain control of as much of the world's uranium deposits as possible . The richest source of ore was the Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo, but it was flooded and closed . Nichols unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate its reopening and the sale of the entire future output to the United States with Edgar Sengier, the director of the company that owned the mine, Union Minière du Haut Katanga . The matter was then taken up by the Combined Policy Committee . As 30 percent of Union Minière's stock was controlled by British interests, the British took the lead in negotiations . Sir John Anderson and Ambassador John Winant hammered out a deal with Sengier and the Belgian government in May 1944 for the mine to be reopened and 1,720 short tons (1,560 t) of ore to be purchased at $1.45 a pound . To avoid dependence on the British and Canadians for ore, Groves also arranged for the purchase of US Vanadium Corporation's stockpile in Uravan, Colorado . Uranium mining in Colorado yielded about 800 short tons (730 t) of ore . </P>

Where did the us get uranium for the atomic bomb