Residents of this valley near the Four Corners region are getting an unimpeded view of the second uranium rush. Many are worried.

Glasier, the one-time mining executive-turned-rancher, wants to build a uranium mill on cattle grazing land near his spread. It would be the country's first in decades.

The land is not far from the toxic uranium mines, now mostly abandoned, that serve as a reminder of an industry born of the Cold War.

As the third global energy shock begins to drastically alter national economies, a potential shift in U.S. energy policy has moved to the forefront of the upcoming presidential election.

Barack Obama and John McCain are crossing the country, with Obama blasting Republican energy policies and McCain advocating a large expansion of nuclear power.

McCain last week became the first presidential candidate in recent memory to tour a nuclear plant. His energy proposals include building 45 nuclear power plants by 2030.

Glasier also believes the time to return to nuclear power is now and thinks Paradox Valley, about 300 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, is well placed to reap the rewards.

But the nation's turn toward nuclear energy is worrisome to many, and in particular in Paradox Valley, it is the plan drafted by Glasier's Energy Fuels Inc.

The company has two mines that are close to being fully permitted, five parcels with existing but closed mines, about 45,000 acres yet to be explored plus the 1,000-acre Paradox Valley mill site. All of its properties are in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.

The proposed uranium mill would cost as much as $150 million to build, money that Glasier is still trying to raise. The company hopes to begin construction by 2010.

Plenty of opposition has sprung up to the plan. Anna Cotter, 72, moved to the area in 1955 when the uranium industry was booming. Her husband sold mining machinery and her relatives worked the mines.

But the valley has changed since then, she said. ''I personally don't want that going on again.''

Glasier's mill would process uranium ore into yellowcake and ship it to a conversion plant in Metropolis, Ill. Industry officials say new technology such as enclosed radioactive waste containers has made processing safer than in the past.

But the plan drafted by Glasier's Energy Fuels Inc. has not convinced everyone. The people of Paradox Valley have seen nearby communities saddled for years with radioactive contamination. Uranium miners have suffered from lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and pneumoconiosis, a lung disease from inhaling dust.

The same fight is brewing across the country as residents and environmental groups try to block new mines and processing facilities for the nuclear industry.

From the 1940s through the Cold War, miners using Geiger counters staked out claims in areas with large uranium reserves, such as Ticaboo; Uravan, Colo.; and Grants, N.M.

There was little to no government oversight of mines or mills, said Glasier, who spent 14 years working for a large U.S. uranium producer.

When the Berlin Wall fell, uranium from weapons stockpiles flooded the market and prices plummeted from $40 a pound in the late 1970s to less than $10 a pound in 2002.

The Three Mile Island reactor accident in 1979 and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster brought the nuclear industry to a standstill.

Only one conventional uranium mill remains in operation today, near Blanding.

There has since been a resurgence of support for nuclear power and a 15 percent increase in the world's known recoverable uranium resources, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Australia has the biggest supply of known recoverable uranium resources, about 23 percent. Russia has 10 percent and the United States has 6 percent.

About 90 percent of the uranium needed for U.S. power plants is imported, much of it from Russia, Glasier said. The first application since 1988 for a uranium processing facility was filed in October with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Since then, the NRC has received 27 applications for facilities in Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona and New Mexico. Utah, Colorado and Texas have their own oversight agencies.

Conventional uranium mining removes ore that is transported to a mill, much like Glasier's proposed operation. In the other form of mining, workers inject a mixture such as oxygen blended with sodium carbonate into the ore body. The uranium is dissolved into the mixture which is pumped to the surface.

In meetings to sell his plan, residents have vented their fears and sometimes their anger on Glasier. As momentum builds in the nuclear industry, so does the pushback.

Groups are fighting plans to expand uranium mining, and last week environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit claiming that a program clearing the way for uranium mines in western Colorado is illegal.