I have heard -- but don't have a source to cite -- that there are very few uranium mines currently in operation, because there was too much ore mined back in th

I have heard -- but don't have a source to cite -- that there are very few uranium mines currently in operation, because there was too much ore mined back in the 70s and 80s. The mining companies (principally in Canada and Australia) vastly overestimated demand; when TMI happened and the US stopped building new plants, suddenly there was enough on-hand for years. Apparently there are whole ghost towns in Canada that just closed up shop as a result. So it wouldn't surprise me if there hadn't been any U mining deaths recently, even though the mining is on average potentially more hazardous than coal. Keep in mind though, that even if Uranium was spectacularly more difficult and dangerous to mine, the volume of it that needs to be mined is so much smaller than coal, that it would still be a better option in terms of safety overall. (You'd just have to pay those miners a ton in return for the risk!)