The Uranium Corporation of India Limited's (UCIL's) hydro-metallurgical plant in Nalgonda district has attracted the ire of environmentalists who say its proposed open-cast mine abuts the massive Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir. It is feared that radiation- and heavy metal-contaminated storm water run-off from the uranium mines would find its way into the reservoir. This is likely to impact the entire downstream of the Krishna river basin which caters to over six districts.
The processing of the uranium ore mined at Lambapur-Peddagattu will be done 18 km away, in a mill at Mallapuram that sits 4 km from another water body, the Akkampally reservoir. The Andhra Pradesh government is laying huge pipelines along a 130-km route to supply water from this reservoir to Hyderabad-Secunderabad and 600 villages most of whose inhabitants are affected by fluorosis caused by excessive presence of fluoride in potable water. Having a tailings pond—where radioactive and chemical waste from the mines and the mill will be dumped—close to the reservoir can be dangerous, fears Ravi Rebbapragada of Mines, Minerals and People, an ngo working for people who inhabit areas with mines. A United Nations Environmental Programme report of 2001 lists 221 tailings dam "incidents" the world over.
The BSP's Baseline Index 
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