Australian mining engineer here. Based on some pretty basic evidence [0] I'd assume uranium mining is several orders of magnitude less damaging than other energy sources, and probably has a decisive "carbon free" advantage over wind and solar once you factor those externalities in.

Australia is a top-3 uranium producer [1], we have 3 mines. That rounds to 0 in Australian mining terms. Olympic Dam is a monster in relative terms, and the production numbers are ... by tonnes Olympic Dam isn't even a uranium mine, it is a copper mine. And Olympic Dam [2] is a world class uranium mine afaik.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_uranium_p...

[2] https://www.bhp.com/-/media/bhp/documents/investors/reports/...

Those are all considered in the lifecycle emissions calculations done by folks like the IPCC, who released these data [1]. It considers mining, construction, transportation, waste, etc. of all energy sources so they can be compared for energy policy purposes.

E=MC2 is an amazing thing.

[1] https://partofthething.com/thoughts/wp-content/uploads/ipcc-...

Source: Schlomer S., et.al., 2014: Annex III: Technology-specific cost and performance parameters. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC

Uranium mining is a tiny operation due to it's absurd energy density. I wouldn't be surprised if the mining cost of rare Earth's used to maintain broken solar units surpasses it it's so insignificant.

Besides most countries with a nuclear weapons program end up with a lot of reactor-grade uranium lying about anyway, and those countries also happen to be the biggest polluters in energy

> I wouldn't be surprised if the mining cost of rare Earth's used to maintain broken solar units surpasses it it's so insignificant.

Yeah, there's plenty of very unpleasant chemistry involved in making PV panels and I strongly doubt that the wastes involved in the associated mining/manufacturing/disposal processes are treated anywhere nearly as carefully as nuclear waste (not to speak of the fact that due to sheer energy density difference, PV panels will produce far more waste than nuclear fuel/reactors).

No, it's actually a terribly polluting and inefficient mining process. Only a tiny fraction of what is dug up is usable. It requires many (even more toxic) steps in order to turned into fuel. There's a good documentary about uranium tailings and how they pollute the local water permanently.

Besides, there isn't enough uranium in the world to provide baseload nuclear power that would replace coal.