From the article:
“Ranger’s operating company, Energy Resources of Australia, maintains that water testing at the site shows no environmental damage has been caused to the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, which surrounds the mine.”
Sure!
Rio Tinto’s Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory
– Ranger mine’s uranium spill revealed to be Rio Tinto’s second in a week (Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 11, 2013):
The chemical spill at Ranger Uranium Mine last weekend was the second such incident in a week for the mine’s parent company, Rio Tinto, placing further scrutiny on the company’s uranium mining operations.
Processing at the Ranger site, in Kakadu National Park, was suspended by the federal government on Tuesday. Environment Minister Greg Hunt ordered ”an immediate investigation” into the incident in which a leach tank burst, spilling about 1 million litres of highly acidic uranium slurry.
It has since emerged that a virtually identical incident occurred just days before, at Rossing, Rio Tinto’s other uranium mine, in Namibia. On December 3, one of the 12 leach tanks at Rossing had a ”catastrophic structural failure”, spilling a large quantity of radioactive slurry.