GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) - Western Colorado and eastern Utah, already a beehive of oil and gas exploration, now is seeing a rush to find uranium to meet rising demand from nuclear reactors around the world.

This year more than 8,500 mining-claim permits have been filed in eight uranium-rich Colorado and Utah counties. For years claim activity was virtually zero.

Only 100 million pounds have been produced annually, but the 435 nuclear reactors in the world, including 104 in the United States, need 180 million pounds. Demand will grow as China and India increase nuclear power, and President Bush pushs for the United States to expand its use.

"No doubt about it, the world needs more uranium," said Tom Pool, chairman of International Nuclear Inc. in Golden.

For the first time since 1974, the U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to put 13,600 acres of uranium-laced western Colorado lands up for bid next year. The Uravan Mineral Belt, a swatch of western Colorado desert that holds a unique combination of steel-hardening vanadium mixed with uranium, is a center of activity.

"I see this boom not being a spike like in the early '90s. And I see it being more sustained than it was in the '70s and '80s," said Ed Cotter, the contract project manager for uranium leasing for the Department of Energy.

It isn't likely to be a rush to get as much of the 75 million pounds of uranium and 282,000 pounds of vanadium in the Colorado Plateau out of the ground as fast as possible.

"Companies are planning in a much more effective way for the future. They're making sure when you ramp up production, you ramp up carefully," said Stuart Sanderson, director of the Colorado Mining Association.

Increased permit requirements and a lack of manpower and equipment - won't allow a rush to uranium production in any case.