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/...