Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he will ensure any nuclear waste dump which comes before him for approval will be subject to rigorous environmental assessment.

Mr Garrett today said he was "fully committed" to applying stringent environmental checks to any nuclear waste facility that he approved.

In response to whether the government would "fast-track" a nuclear waste facility, Mr Garrett replied that the government would stick to its promise to repeal Howard-era legislation to locate the waste in the Northern Territory

"The situation is that the policy commitments that were made before coming into government will be fulfilled," Mr Garrett told reporters in Melbourne today.

"When a proposal comes to me I'll treat it as I would in the ordinary course of business

"We have always said, and I have always said, that our task is to make sure that we apply the appropriate environmental laws scrupulously and diligently.

"We want to have a world's best practice approach on these issues

"We will have that.

"I am fully committed to it."

Mr Garrett's comments follow Howard-government legislation, the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, which paved the way for the dump to go ahead.

A process is underway to find a location for the nuclear waste dump, with consultants due to report back to the government by the end of the month.