The
state of Andhra Pradesh is the largest producer of uranium in India.
Tummalapalle village located in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh is
considered as one of the largest uranium reserves in the world. The continuous
expedition in Tummalapalle in Kadapa and Koppunuru in Guntur led to the
discovery of more uranium making this state the largest producer of uranium in
India.
These
reserves were officially commissioned in 2012 as they were equipped in catering
to 25 percent of the requirement of uranium in the nuclear power plants in
India. In 2000, when these mines were first found, they had about 14,300 tonnes
of uranium oxide which rose to 85,000 tonnes in 2014. The total reserves of
uranium oxide in the divided Andhra Pradesh reached about 1,22,000 tonnes in
2017. As per the official data, the Tummalapalle region in Kadapa district has
rich resources amounting to 1,19,930 tonnes of uranium oxide in which 1,01,701
tonnes was of uranium metal. The Koppunuru region of the Guntur district
contained 2,761 tonnes of uranium oxide in which 2,341 tonnes was of uranium
metal.
The
uranium ore reserves are found 1,000 meters deep in the mines. Just beside the
Tummalapalle mine, a processing plant has been set up which converts the
uranium ore into sodium diuranate for the use in nuclear power plants.
According to the reports, the western part of the Palnadu region located on the
right hand side of the River Krishna and the Paddagattu-Lambapur area on the
left hand side have rich resources of uranium.
The
Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) has constructed a mine in the
Tummalapalle region which extends up to 7.6 km and has the efficiency of mining
almost 3,000 tonnes of uranium ore on daily basis.
