They want the Federal Government to abandon plans for Australia’s first radioactive waste dump saying it would create “unacceptable safety risks”.

“We can’t definitely say it will go through Dubbo but we know it will go through either western NSW or northern NSW,” NSW Senate candidate Lee Rhiannon told the Daily Liberal.

She said 90 per cent of the waste that would be transported to the proposed dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory would come from Lucas Heights in NSW.

“(The risk) really is heightened when you get radioactive waste on the road because there is more likelihood of a truck accident,” she said.

“You just need to look at Three Mile Island or Chernobyl. Now it’s not that degree of radioactive material ... but (if there was a spill) that area would become not just a dead zone for generation after generation but the health implications are just too horrible to contemplate.”

The traditional landowners of Muckaty have launched legal action to stop the dump.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson assured the community radioactive materials were “transported safely around Australia everyday”.

“No plans for a radioactive waste management facility at Muckaty Station or the transport of waste to that facility have been approved,” he said.

“Communities in central NSW and around Australia have nothing to fear from the transport of radioactive waste in Australia.”

Ms Rhiannon said Labor, who opposed the former Government’s attempt to build a waste dump in South Australia, was now back-flipping.

“They have broken their promise on it. They have backed similar legislation to what (John) Howard wanted to get through,” she said.

“What comes out of Lucas Heights is not low-level waste, it is either medium or high-level waste. All of the scientific advice says that sort of waste should be stored on site.

“We’ve done so much to Aboriginal communities in this country to then dump nuclear waste on their land is truly unbelievable.”

Dubbo faced a similar situation in 2003 when the Howard Government proposed a low-level radioactive waste dump near Woomera in South Australia. At the time the Nationals supported the trucking of waste through NSW while the Greens, Democrats and Labor opposed it.

The Muckaty case is due back in the Federal Court in October before Justice Tony North.