AUSTRALIA’S most controversial mine, Ranger in Kakadu National Park, was shut down yesterday following a uranium scare affecting 20 staff.

The scare occurred after workers coming off the night shift complained the water in the showers was making them itchy. The water was found to contain levels of uranium up to 400 times safe drinking levels.

The uranium mine’s water systems were shut down and all non- essential staff sent home. Most concern is held for several workers who took prolonged showers. There are also fears some staff

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may have drunk the water. Ranger is expected to stay shut at least until the weekend.

The federal Government’s supervising scientist at Ranger, Arthur Johnston, whose field station receives water from the mine, said his staff were at the mine helping owner Energy Resources Australia investigate the incident and were sampling water in surrounding creeks.

It is the most serious uranium incident since the spill of 110,000 litres of radioactive waste liquid at Olympic Dam, South Australia, last October.

The open-cut Ranger mine, 250km east of Darwin, is bordered by a uranium processing plant. It has been the subject of repeated demonstrations by conservationists. A Senate inquiry last year found regulation of the site to be “flawed, confusing and inadequate”.

ERA said it had immediately advised the airport and other businesses near Ranger whose water supply is provided by the mine.

A spokeswoman for ERA said investigators were still interviewing workers and going over the mine last night in an attempt to understand what happened. She said it was believed that late on Tuesday night a change in the water supply made by one or more night shift workers may have led to the incident but exactly how this happened was still uncertain.

Environmental and Aboriginal groups called for urgent government action.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said yesterday’s incident was the latest in “a history of spills, leaks and breakdowns” at Ranger.

“There have been over 100 leaks and spills since the mine commenced operation in 1981,” ACF nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney said.