"We need to make sure that Australians appreciate that what is being proposed here makes sense to the national interest and is making sure that we have a single repository for waste," Nelson told reporters.

He said the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Facility was due to start operating in 2011.

The Mt Everard site being considered is less than 300 km (185 miles) from Uluru, while Harts Range is 450 km from the rock that attracts almost 400,000 visitors a year. The Fisher's Ridge site is about 360 km south of the tropical northern city of Darwin.

Along with waste from various government agencies, the radioactive dump would also receive waste from Australia's only reactor, a research facility at Lucas Heights in Sydney.

Low-level waste includes laboratory gloves, clothing, glass, and contaminated soil, while intermediate-level waste includes disused radiotherapy equipment and about 50 cubic metres of spent fuel from the research reactor that has been reprocessed overseas.

But the country's six states will have to look after their own waste after Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government scrapped plans for a national dump a year ago after the states had failed to agree on a location.

The government had earmarked a site for a national dump in South Australia state, near the former rocket range at Woomera, 475 km (295 miles) north of Adelaide, but abandoned it after a court ruled the compulsory purchase of the land was illegal.

The court action had been launched by the centre-left Labor state government in South Australia.

"The reality is we've got to proceed with this now, there will be no further mucking about," Nelson said.