India has announced the discovery of a huge supply of uranium. A four year survey of the site was completed and has revealed that it could provide up to 150,000 tonnes of uranium.

Srikumar Banerjee, secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy, told reporters: “It’s confirmed that the mine has 49,000 tonnes of ore, and there are indications that the total quantity could be three times that amount.”

S.K. Malhotra, spokesman for the Department of Atomic Energy, told AFP that experts at the Tumalapalli mine were hopeful that the eventual volume from the mine would reach 150,000 tonnes but he warned that it was low-grade uranium: “We have not found any high-grade uranium in India to match that found in Australia.”

Previous estimates suggested the mine could only provide 15,000 tonnes of uranium. India currently gets less than three% of its energy from nuclear power, but hopes to raise the figure to 25% by 2050.

India currently has 20 nuclear reactors generating 4,780 megawatts of power, plus seven reactors with a capacity of 5,300 megawatts under construction.