More than 200,000 litres of radioactive sludge from three cracked waste pools has leaked into the environment at the SOMAIR uranium mine in Niger, operated by French energy company AREVA. The contaminated water leaks from storage pools for liquid effluents from the uranium milling process (where the uranium is extracted from the ore). The tailings dams have collapsed and the effluents are leaking into the environment, where they can cause serious contamination of ground water and local wells. Uranium mining creates large volumes of radioactive and industrial wastes. This new leakage in Niger shows that the bad practices at the AREVA uranium mines continues to threaten the health and safety of people and the surrounding environment.