Western Australia's premier says a site in outback South Australia is a "logical location" to host high-level radioactive waste that will be produced by Australia's future submarines.
As part of the AUKUS deal announced on Tuesday, the federal government has promised to dispose of nuclear waste required for the submarines at a new facility on defence land, the location of which has not yet been chosen.
The initial submarines will be imported from overseas, while those built in Australia later on will be made in South Australia and docked in Western Australia.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews suggested on Thursday those states could also host the waste they produce.
"I think the waste can go where all the jobs are going," he said with a shrug.
"I don't think that's unreasonable, is it?"
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan made it clear on Thursday morning that nuclear waste from AUKUS submarines was not welcome in his state.
Mr McGowan answered with a firm "no" when asked if he would be OK with the Department of Defence selecting a site in Western Australia to dispose of spent submarine nuclear reactors.
He suggested South Australia take on the nuclear waste facility.
"The Commonwealth will undertake their review, but I was once a military officer and I am familiar with a lot of the Defence estate," he said.
"What they'll have to find is somewhere remote, somewhere with very good long-term geological structure that doesn't change or move, and somewhere that is Defence land — that narrows it down and that's why Woomera springs to mind.
"Woomera was used for nuclear tests, so it has some of those issues already existing there, that's why it just springs to mind as the logical location for the facility."
The 122,000 square kilometre Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia's outback is owned by the Department of Defence.
The Australian Radioactive Waste Agency will review possible locations for the new dump.
Acting South Australian Premier and Environment Minister Susan Close said decisions about the location should be led by science.
"It's all very helpful for other premiers to start allocating future waste which is some decades in the future," Dr Close said.
"Let's let science lead the way and not listen to political considerations, particularly from state leaders trying to move nuclear waste that doesn't yet exist across the border."
Defence Minister says dump decades away
Speaking in Perth alongside Mr McGowan, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said the process for selecting a nuclear waste site would be announced within 12 months.
Asked whether the government had any particular state in mind for the site, Mr Marles said it was too early for that.
"We made this announcement on Tuesday, today is Thursday; there is a long way to go between now and the 2050s," he said.
Mr Marles said he wanted it to be clear it would be about the year 2055 before the first spent nuclear reactor would need to be disposed of.
But the deputy prime minister confirmed he had raised the topic with Mr McGowan while in Perth this week.
"I have had a chat with the premier, but it is very early days, and look in the next year we will be announcing the process, not the outcome but the process, by which we will determine this facility and we will let that process run," he said.
Dump ruled out for Kimba
Farmland near Kimba, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, has been chosen to host Australia's low to intermediate-level nuclear waste but it has been ruled out from being used for the AUKUS waste.
But Kimba local Toni Scott is not confident the government will stick to its word.
"I don't really trust the government, what the government says," she said.
"This is something that we've been worried about the whole time, is that the level of waste will increase.
"Defence have said that they don't have a place for nuclear waste, so I guess now they will need to find a place."
