NSW urged to ban uranium exploration

Environmentalists are calling for a ban on uranium exploration across NSW, after elevated levels of the metal were found inside an aquifer near a coal seam gas site.

While the contamination was not linked to uranium exploration, Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation says it should serve as a wake-up call to the state government on the risks associated with the radioactive metal.

He says there have been cases of water being contaminated with uranium 400 times the safe drinking levels at mines across the country.

"(Uranium exploration) threatens the most important resources that sustain life in this state and on this continent," he told AAP on Tuesday.

Mr Sweeney is calling for Premier Barry O'Farrell to ditch any plans for uranium exploration or mining in the state.

In 2012, Mr O'Farrell repealed a 26-year-old ban on uranium exploration, saying the state would be stupid to turn a blind eye to the revenue that it could generate.

But Mr Sweeney says the economic and employment benefits of uranium mining have been "consistently exaggerated".

"It is high risk and it is low return," he said.

NSW's Environment Protection Authority issued a $1500 fine to energy giant Santos last month following a "pollution incident" at the company's Narrabri Gas Field operations in the Pilliga.

The contamination was caused by water leaking from a pond, with lead, aluminium, arsenic, barium, boron, nickel and uranium detected in the aquifer at elevated levels.

Santos said this week that the elevated levels of the naturally occurring minerals at the site posed no risk to people or the environment.

It said inadequate water treatment facilities had been put in by a previous owner and had since been closed down and rehabilitation work carried out.