The Mirarr peoples want the massive Jabiluka uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, about 300km east of Darwin, to remain undeveloped and be incorporated into Kakadu National Park.

Yvonne Margarula, the senior traditional Aboriginal owner of country around Jabiru, including part of Kakadu National Park and the Ranger uranium mine situated just south of Jabiluka, wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon this week to express sympathy for the Japanese people affected by the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

She said it was likely Kakadu uranium was at least in part fuelling some of the radiation problems being experienced at Fukushima.

TEPCO, the company that owns and operates the Fukushima plant, is a long-time customer of Rio Tinto's Energy Resources Australia (ERA), which operates the Ranger uranium mine.

Ms Margarula said in her letter that the Ranger mine was forced on the Mirarr people 30 years ago, under-mining the legitimacy of Aboriginal Land Rights. "We Mirarr remain opposed to Jabiluka's development; the Fukushima incident only strengthens our resolve," she wrote.

Her letter comes as production at Ranger remains suspended due to persistent water management problems and environmental risks posed by heavy rain.

Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation released a statement yesterday saying that there were now more than 10 million litres of contaminated water on the Ranger site, which is upstream from Aboriginal communities and internationally recognised wetlands.

ERA has plans to expand the mine, and is expected to soon publish an environmental impact statement into acid heap leach technology that environmentalists say is "controversial and unproven".