In 1913, uranium mining began in Portugal in the Urgeiriça and Canas de Senhorim (Viseu) mines. Infrastructure for ore processing was also built in the area in which the country's largest reserves of uranium are located. The year 1949 was crucial for Portugal's uranium industry: the country signed an agreement with England prior to the Cold War for the exploitation of 4,370 tons of uranium oxide in 61 mines (most were small) located in the districts of Guarda, Viseu, and Coimbra. Currently, all of them are closed and in a dangerous state of abandonment.
Based in Urgeiriça, the Empresa Nacional do Urânio (ENU, National Uranium Company) had been responsible for the exploitation of all uranium mines in Portugal since 1977. The process to dissolve the company began in 2001. On December 31, 2003, the Urgeiriça mine was closed, leaving behind large socio-environmental liabilities. This gave rise to the fight for compensation and the organization of anti-uranium groups and numerous protests throughout the country. In central Portugal, 115 of the 500 former uranium company employees have died due to health problems from working in unsafe conditions.
Parliamentary Resolution nº. 34/2001, of March 29, recommended that the government take measures to solve the problem of radioactivity in the waste and the abandoned uranium mines in the districts of Coimbra, Viseu, and Guarda. Its main recommendations were to actively monitor the communities of all three districts to minimize the risks related to radioactivity and chemical pollution and to provide former ENU employees a pension and compensation to guarantee them adequate living conditions (there were 40 workers on staff when the company closed). The Empresa de Desenvolvimento Mineiro (EDM, Mining Development Enterprise) was created as a public enterprise by Decree-Law 198A/2001. It is responsible for the environmental restoration of areas that have been degraded by mining in the country.
In 2002, former ENU employees and community members created the Ambiente em Zonas Uraníferas – Associação Ambiental (AZU, the Environment in Uranium Zones –Environmental Association). The association defended the need for an epidemiological study to investigate the relationship between uranium mining in the region and the high incidence of cancer in the population.
At this point, a study on the effects of uranium exposure on the entire population of Nelas concluded that the rate of mortality from 'malignant neoplasm of the trachea, bronchi, and lungs' was high It also confirmed the possibility that this increase was related to uranium mining in Urgeiriça (Viseu), but could not rule out other causes. In 2004, several demonstrations were held in Canas de Senhorim, involving confrontations with police.
In November 2007, a new wave of demonstrations took place. Former ENU workers held a vigil in front of city hall in Viseu to demand compensation. In Nisa (Alentejo), AZU supported the protest movement led by the population and local associations, also backed by the local authorities, in opposition to the uranium mining project. In June 2007, they created the civic movement Movimento Urânio em Nisa Não (MUNN, No to Uranium in Nisa), which is still active today.
In April 2008, the works began to clean up Barragem Velha, the waste storage site of the Urgeiriça mines.
In September 2010, a new law was approved, which provides surface miners compensation to ensure that they had the right to early retirement regardless of how long they had worked for ENU. Adopted in April, 2016, law no 10/2016 established the right of ENU workers to compensation for death caused by occupational diseases.
In 2015, the Movimento Ibérico Anti-nuclear (Iberian Anti-nuclear Movement) was created to fight for the closure of the nuclear energy plants on the Iberian Peninsula (namely Almaraz) and address other problems related to the nuclear industry such as uranium mining or waste management.
According to data from February 2017, works are still pending for 20 of the 61 mines, which fall under the scope of Parliamentary Resolution nº. 34/2001. The deadline for their conclusion is 2022. Only 2 of the over 3 million tons of waste from the Barragem Velha site have been treated.