Pro-uranium campaign backfires on Twitter

A resources industry campaign to promote uranium mining has been hijacked by Twitter users keen to voice their opposition to the practice.

The Minerals Council of Australia launched the Uranium: Untapped Potential campaign on Wednesday, using social media content including videos and posters to highlight the benefits of uranium.

"The material is designed to showcase facts on the table about the uranium industry and the benefits it can provide to the Australian community, including the creation of hundreds of jobs," the council's executive director Daniel Zavattiero said in a statement.

It also aims to reassure the public on safety, while pointing out opportunities in nuclear medicine and the environmental upside of nuclear energy.

"A lifetime's use of electricity from nuclear power plants produces the spent fuel equivalent of one soft drink can," a poster says.

But the hashtag #UntappedPotential, which was trending by Wednesday afternoon, has attracted a large amount of undesired banter by environmentalists who have instead used it to express their concerns around the practice and advocate for alternative energy.

"#UntappedPotential for meltdowns and nuclear disaster?" said Twitter user Jemila Rushton.

"We need to better harness the #untappedpotential of solar power", tweeted Upulie Divisekera.

"#UntappedPotential to put more communities at risk of nuclear waste dumps," Ace Collective said on Twitter.

"We concur that uranium has much #untappedpotential - for disaster, cost and time blowouts and proliferation," Anglesea After Coal said.

The Minerals Council is running the campaign on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.