The principal danger for people living near Jaduguda, say environmentalists, is a 40-hectare "tailing" pond used to hold liquid and solid waste produced in the processing of the ore into yellow cake.
Ore from the mine is processed at Jaduguda into a substance called U308 - commonly known as yellow cake - and then sent to the Nuclear Fuel Complex in the southern city of Hyderabad, where uranium fuel rods are produced.