The organisation's Dr Jim Green used a brief visit to Dubbo this week to remind residents of the 10th anniversary this month of the "famous victory against the Howard government's plan to truck nuclear waste from Lucas Heights through Dubbo to a strongly-contested dump site in South Australia".

At the same time he warned residents that the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which operates Australian's only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, was "continuing its efforts to dump its nuclear waste off-site and Dubbo could once again be targeted as a transport route".

In March this year the federal government called for voluntary nominations of sites for a national radioactive waste management facility.

Landholders in all states and territories were able to nominate land for a facility to "safely store" Australia's intermediate level waste and dispose of low level waste, under the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2015. The deadline for nominations was May 5.

Australia has 4248 cubic metres of low level and 656 cubic metres of intermediate level waste in temporary storage. The government is taking responsibility for the waste which it reports is the "by-product of world leading medical, research and industrial processes that benefit all Australians".

The government is taking responsibility for the waste, which it reports is the "by-product of world leading medical, research and industrial processes that benefit all Australians".

This week the office of federal Minister for Industry and Science Ian Macfarlane told the Daily Liberal of an impending announcement.

"The Department of Industry and Science is in the final stages of preparing a recommended short list of sites for the minister's consideration," his spokesperson said.

"He expects to release his approved short list during July.

"A 60-day period of public consultation will then follow."

On Thursday, Mr Coulton could not rule out the possibility of radioactive waste being trucked through Dubbo in the future.

"But what we've got to understand is that the Lucas Heights facility is used solely to produce radioactive isotopes for nuclear medicine," he said.

"I would ask what is the greater risk to the people of Dubbo, not being able to have appropriate treatment for cancer because of not being able to obtain the material that's produced at Lucas Heights, or the very, very small risk of having a probably-monitored truck coming through the community."

Mr Coulton said the Friends of the Earth were "scaremongering".

"I think there is no risk to the public and quite frankly I'm quite upset that they've come into town with this message, at a stage where there's not even been a decision made," he said.

Dr Green was among the 25 participants in the Friends of the Earth Radioactive Exposure Tour that included a short stop-off at Dubbo this year for the first time.

He said a decade ago Friends of the Earth, communities and councils across the NSW and South Australian transport corridor had been "proud to support the senior traditional owners in South Australia in their successful struggle to protect country and culture"