FRANCE and the United States wanted to build uranium-enrichment plants on Australian soil to feed their burgeoning nuclear power industries in the late 1970s, newly released documents have indicated.

Cabinet documents from Malcolm Fraser's government of 1977, released today by the National Archives of Australia, show a government that spent much of the year discussing and developing a hardline position on safeguards for the sale of uranium.

And the development of a nuclear industry in Australia, beyond the mining and export of uranium, was seriously considered by the then government.

But while French and American overtures to build uranium-enrichment facilities on Australian soil were noted in cabinet submissions, they were never explored further by government, and the facilities never built.

Enriching naturally occurring uranium is the first step to creating nuclear power and weapons.

One cabinet submission from 1977 noted that US policies "do not rule out the possibility of establishing enrichment capacity in Australia; indeed, approaches have been made recently suggesting US willingness to discuss this possibility.

"There has been increasing evidence of overseas interest in coming to some arrangement for participation in enrichment in Australia."

France's central atomic agency, the CEA, the US government's Energy Research and Development Administration, and private firm Urenco, all made repeated requests to discuss enrichment ventures with Australia.

In 1977, the Fraser government decided to permit the mining and export of uranium from Australia, but would trade only with countries party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Nuclear weapon states to whom Australia would sell yellowcake, such as the US, would have to commit that Australia's uranium would be used only for "peaceful purposes (and) not diverted to military or explosive purposes".

Cold War fears meant there was a blanket ban on the export of uranium to the Soviet Union, and then foreign minister Andrew Peacock said developing countries "had the potential to harm Australian interests significantly in the not-too-distant future, by nuclear blackmail".

The uranium Australia sent overseas would stay there. Mr Fraser's cabinet decided Australia would not act as "a repository for spent fuel or radioactive waste for other countries".

Last year, the Howard government was heavily criticised for agreeing to sell uranium to India, outside the non-proliferation regime.

Mr Fraser's flirting with a nuclear industry prompted a three-decade-long fight within the Labor Party over uranium mining, which was resolved only this year. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ruled out a nuclear industry in Australia.

Also in 1977, the Fraser government approved the development of the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory, but established Kakadu National Park to protect the environment around it. (The Ranger, Jabiluka and Koongarra uranium leases, while within the park boundaries, were excluded from the park.)

Indigenous communities living near the Ranger mine would be harmed by it, cabinet conceded. The new mine would provide few jobs for Aborigines, and the influx of non-indigenous workers would likely inflame racial tensions, cabinet was told.

Alcohol abuse was already a serious problem in the area, and the mine would likely "aggravate the problem".

The government wanted the mining companies to build educational facilities and was even considering restricting alcohol sales in some Aboriginal townships to "only draught beer".