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The cascading waterfalls and swimming holes of Litchfield National Park are some of the Northern Territory's most popular tourist attractions.
Key points:
- Mining company URO has applied to explore for uranium on Litchfield National Park's western border
- The disruption of Russian uranium supplies to Europe is fuelling demand
- Tourism operators and residents are concerned about the potential environmental impacts of uranium exploration
Adventure tourism operator Rob Woods said his business had been busier than ever, as tourists returned for the dry season after borders reopened.
"We're talking about ... beautiful creeks ... waterfalls ... unspoiled views," he said.
However, Mr Woods is one of several tourism operators and residents concerned about potential uranium mining in the region.
Melbourne company URO Corporation in September lodged an application to explore for uranium, lithium, rare earths and precious metals on 299 square kilometres of land on the park's western border.
Public submissions on the application closed in October.
"Besides the fact that you're right on the edge of a category one national park, and you've got over 300,000 people visit there every year - and this year upwards of 400,000 visiting - the environment is going to be flogged," Mr Woods said.
"When the point comes that I'm taking people out to a space where I can't balance out the negative with the positive, then we cease to exist."
The Litchfield region, outside of the national park, has previously hosted Rum Jungle uranium mine, which was established in 1954.
There have been ongoing concerns about the environmental damage from that mine, with its continued rehabilitation costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
A massive clean-up operation is also underway at the decommissioned Ranger uranium mine near Kakadu.
In a statement, URO said it hoped any future projects it carried out in the region would "assist in the energy transition to renewable resources in an environmentally sustainable way".
It said it was "looking forward to discussing concerns with the community in the appropriate forum".
Mr Woods said the Northern Territory's history with uranium mines, and challenges with cleaning them up, proved more shouldn't be opened.
"Rum Jungle, 70 years later, is still costing hundreds of millions of dollars to fix up," he said.
"We'll never know what Kakadu would have been like without Ranger ... we never will know if they don't clean it up properly."
Disruption of Russian supplies fuelling demand
Local resident, Laura Cusack, said URO's exploration application covers her new organic vegetable farm.
She said she was "dismayed" about not having the power to veto any mine established on her freehold land.
"Us and the other residents in the area, we're totally dependent on the waterways for our drinking water, and also for watering our crops," Ms Cusack said.
"We're really worried about exploration companies in the exploration process, not just mining, being able to manage contamination."
The Minerals Council's uranium forum chairman, Duncan Craig, said the need to tackle climate change, and the disruption of Russian uranium supplies to Europe, was currently fuelling more demand for the product.
"The world is decarbonising," he said.
"Australia has this once in a lifetime opportunity to capitalise on the inevitable surge in uranium demand that will accompany it, and fuel buyers are really crying out for our product."
Mr Craig is the chief executive of Boss Energy, which is hoping to reopen the mothballed Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia next year.
He said he believed Australia would have to reconsider its opposition to using nuclear power as it moved to reduce emissions and ensure it had a secure energy supply.
"I really think that will happen, and I think what needs to occur is a bipartisan, and properly educated look, at the pros and cons of having nuclear power," he said.
'A legacy of poorly conducted operations'
While the uranium price has been rising, Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation said he hoped it would not reach a point that would encourage the development of new mines.
"It's not at all a given that increased market chatter will translate to a sustained increase in the commodity price," he said.
"Nuclear power is stagnant globally and ... has been outclassed and eclipsed by renewables."
Tourism operator Rob Woods said he believed that if the Northern Territory government decided to allow more uranium mining, it needed to improve its regulation system.
"You don't have the proper regulators in place, you don't have the proper penalties in place," he said.
"So if we are so hell bent on getting uranium out of the ground, then we should expedite the whole process of putting the management infrastructure in place, the legal infrastructure, the oversight infrastructure, that's what needs to be done."
Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said her government was improving the strength of its mining regulation laws.
"We've put in place significant reform around protecting the environment and around ensuring that there is an independent transparent process," she said.