Govt stands by nuclear dump site promise

The Rudd government will stand by an election promise to scrap legislation that paved the way for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says.

But the government will not be giving up the search for a suitable site somewhere in Australia.

Mr Ferguson refused to say when his government will scrap the legislation, or when cabinet will receive recommendations from a scientific report into the most suitable site.

"When I see that scientific report, which is being peer reviewed, then I will make recommendations to cabinet," he told reporters in Darwin on Thursday.

"I am not going to make ad hoc decisions."

There have been concerns the government would not repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (CRWMA) after it voted down a motion to scuttle the law earlier this year.

The Howard government passed it in 2006, giving the federal government the power to impose a nuclear waste dump on the Northern Territory.

Labor promised to repeal it during the last federal election campaign.

Mr Ferguson said the government would come good on its commitment, but Labor would not be abandoning the search for a site.

"There has been a sense of immaturity from the Australian community and the political processes (about this)," he said.

"If you want the benefit of nuclear medicine in Australia, and every family has benefited from it, you've also got to accept there is a hard decision about where we store the waste."

The minister said there had been "a burning lack of decisiveness by the Australian community and governments of all political persuasions" since the matter was first considered in 1988.

"(My) department has done a scientific assessment of a range of potential sites," Mr Ferguson said, adding it sought an area that was isolated, dry and geologically stable.

"I will treat this process as I treat any other potential investment in Australia."

The coalition short-listed Harts Range, Fishers Ridge and Mount Everard as possible sites for a dump.

Muckaty Station, about 120km north of Tennant Creek, was later controversially nominated as a possible site by the Northern Land Council.

Mr Ferguson said he had not consulted with any communities about a dump site because he was awaiting the findings of the scientific report.

"I'm not going to go around this country wasting taxpayers' dollars having consultations about a potential site that has not been determined," he said.