Legal Geographies of Extraction: A Critical Analysis of Uranium Mining Laws in India

Abstract

The search for energy security and advancement in nuclear technology in India is greatly influenced by uranium mining. Because uranium is the key fuel used in nuclear reactors and is considered ‘strategic,’ it is supervised and managed centrally by the DAE and UCIL of the Government of India (Government of India, 1962). Nevertheless, technology and economics are only part of the story; law also intervenes on many levels in the land, organizing areas of extraction, areas where people are kept out and sites of conflict.