The world's largest uranium mine was discovered

India claims to have discovered the world's largest reserves of uranium in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The uranium mine is found in India with the world's largest reserves. Illustration. Source: Indiainfoline.

The Telegraph newspaper said Srikumar Banerjee, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission, said the four-year survey found Tumalapalli mine in Andhra Pradesh state could give 150,000 tons of uranium. Under the plan, this huge uranium mine will start to be exploited from the end of 2011.

'We have determined that the Tumalapalli mine contains 49,000 tons of uranium, but the survey results show that the reserves of uranium in the mine could increase threefold. If this conjecture is correct, this will be the largest uranium mine in the world , 'Banerjee said.

However, the Indian Atomic Energy Ministry said it only used uranium to enrich nuclear energy for the purpose of producing electricity. Earlier, India had to find sources of uranium from different countries around the world to maintain the operation of nuclear power plants.

In the past three decades, India has signed a contract to buy uranium with France, Kazakhstan and Russia. But with the release of the world's largest reserves of uranium, India can be more proactive in developing more nuclear power plants, in order to serve the fast-growing economy.

India hopes to increase the share of nuclear power to about 30% of its total electricity production by 2050 by building an additional 30 new nuclear power plants, with domestic uranium resources exploited. Currently, thermal power plants are still the main energy source in India.