ENERGY Resources of Australia insists there has been no environmental impact from the weekend's spill of about one million litres of radioactive and acidic slurry from a tank at the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu.
But environmental groups are calling on the Rio Tinto subsidiary to allow independent scientists on site to conduct their own investigations.
"I think they're lying," said Dr Stuart Blanch, director of the Environment Centre NT.
"It's clear there's contaminated water from the burst tank on soil - they've said it's landed mainly on impervious surfaces, like cement, but it's clearly not."
On Friday night workers detected a hole in Leach Tank 1 within the processing area, which has a capacity of about 1.5 million litres.
At about 1am (CST) on Saturday morning the tank split, pouring out a slurry containing mud, water, ore and sulfuric acid.
ERA have not yet said how full the tank was at the time of the spill.
Senator Mathias Cormann said Australia's acting supervising scientist had provided the assurances after attending the site in the Kakadu National Park.
"The spill was contained within the plant area and there is no threat to the surrounding area or to human health outside of the immediate area," Senator Cormann told the upper house during question time on Monday.
The government has ordered an investigation into the spillage, and Senator Cormann said a clean-up has begun, including the installation of retaining walls to prevent the slurry spreading further if it rains.
There have been more than 200 safety breaches and incidents over the past 30 years at the site, according to the Environment Centre NT, which says the slurry spill overflowed levee banks designed to contain it and got into the mine's stormwater drain system.
"Over 30 years you think they'd be getting better at what they do, but in fact they're getting worse," said spokeswoman Lauren Mellor.
"We've had reassurances from ERA that these contaminants wouldn't reach Kakadu National Park and contaminate the groundwater there but we simply can't take them at face value - there's been no independent assessment of how fast they can spread."
The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation (GAC), which represents the Mirarr traditional owners of the land, says it has no faith in regulators.
The federal regulator of the site, Supervising Scientist Richard McAllister, was a water and environmental engineer for an ERA subsidiary for several years during the 1990s.
"There's historically been a revolving door of personnel between the Office of the Supervising Scientist (OSS), the NT government and the company, and it speaks to the need for a clear independent assessment," GAC CEO Justin O'Brien told AAP.
An ERA spokesman said requests for independent scientific testing would have to be made to the OSS rather than to the mine operator.
Bryan Wilkins, regional organiser of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, said that during the tank's construction and installation in 1993 or 1994 the welding was not properly tested.
"I know it wasn't - I was there," he said.
A full investigation to determine what caused the tank to give way is being commissioned, said ERA CEO Andrea Sutton.
She would not comment to the ABC on the age of the tank, possible causes of the leak, or how long operations will be stalled.
The GAC estimates it could be for as long as two months.
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