The Turnbull government has finally released a shortlist of six sites that are in the running to host Australia's first permanent nuclear waste dump for low-level and intermediate waste.
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The six sites have been chosen from 28 voluntarily nominated sites around Australia and are at Sallys Flat in NSW, Hale in the Northern Territory, Cortlinye, Pinkawillinie and Barndioota in South Australia and Oman Ama in Queensland.
Following release of the much-anticipated shortlist, locals who live in the six locations will now be consulted over the next four months about what will eventually be a remote, 100-hectare site.
A shorter list of three sites will be released next year and by the end of the year, after the next federal election, the government will finally name its preferred site, which is due to be operating by the end of the decade.
Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg said Australians should embrace the eventual construction of a permanent facility as it would allow them to continue to enjoy the benefits of nuclear medicine, for example.
"This is something in Australia's interests, we are required to store our own waste and this will also allow Australians to continue to benefit from the nuclear industry, in particular nuclear medicine," he said.
"This is completely independent from the nuclear fuel cycle royal commission process underway in South Australia."
Australia has the equivalent of about two Olympic-sized swimming pools of low-level nuclear waste at 100 sites across the country and the facility will store this waste, as well as low and intermediate-level radioactive waste from the Lucas Heights facility in Sydney.
The waste includes laboratory items such as paper, plastic and glassware, material from medical treatment and even radioactive soil. One in two Australians is expected to require potentially life-saving nuclear medicines in their lifetime.
Five of the six shortlisted sites are in Liberal or National-held seats while one is Labor-held. Mr Frydenberg stressed there was "no politics" in the selection of the shortlist, which had been compiled by his department on the advice of an independent expert panel.
Last month, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull suggested Australia could look to expand its nuclear industry, arguing Australians had a "perfectly reasonable" view that said "we have got the uranium, we mine it, why don't we process it, turn it into the fuel rods, lease it to people overseas, when they are done, we bring them back and we have got stable, very stable geology in remote locations and a stable political environment".
Mr Frydenberg cautioned that under current legislation, "Australia can't take another country's waste" and thus, the possible expansion of the industry was not at this stage possible.
Australian-produced waste that had been sent to France, the US and Britain between 1996 and 2009 is due to be returned to Australia under international agreement, with a load from France currently en route to Australia and due to arrive at Port Kembla later this month.
Mr Frydenberg said on Friday that if sites are approved, landowners who have volunteered their property would receive up to four times the value of their land, with the community receiving "around $10 million that will be put into a fund or to go towards important community causes that will be determined by that community".
He would not be drawn on possible compensation for people who choose to move away because their community will begin storing nuclear waste.
The federal government last year dropped its attempt to store nuclear waste in the Northern Territory after traditional owners at Muckaty Station near Tennant Creek, argued in the Federal Court that their consent was not obtained before the sacred site was nominated in 2007.
Mr Frydenberg said there were no native title claims to any of the sites on the shortlist, which had been supported by Indigenous leader Warren Mundine.
"They are freehold sites but of course we will be absolutely sensitive to any views put forward by the Indigenous communities."
Mr Frydenberg stressed that all environmental and regulatory requirements for the final sites would be met, with safety a primary concern.
He would not rule out Australia one day storing nuclear waste from other countries, saying the federal government would await the findings of an ongoing South Australian royal commission into the nuclear fuel cycle.
It would not reflect "best practice" to expand the Lucas Heights facility to store more waste, he said.
ANSTO chief executive, Dr Adrian Paterson, said that while the facility could hold waste temporarily, it could not become a long term storage site under current laws.
"We're a responsible manager of waste but we are not a long-term repository for waste," he said.
With Jane Lee
