A Northern Territory senator says Australia should be seriously considering using nuclear energy as a power source.

The Country Liberal Party's Nigel Scullion has praised the new federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, for opening the nuclear discussion.

"If you're fair dinkum about dealing with the effects of climate change, then you can't put aside one of the major power sources of the future that is the cleanest power source available," Senator Scullion said.

"Now there are fundamentalists who will continue to remind us of Chernobyl and all those sort of things, but we've come an awful long way since then."

Meanwhile, an anti-nuclear group in Alice Springs says this week's change in the Liberal Party leadership makes it even more likely that a nuclear waste facility will be forced on the Territory.

The Beyond Nuclear Initiative has reiterated its calls for the Federal Government to fulfil its 2007 election promise to repeal the Radioactive Waste Management Act.

The group's Natalie Wasley says it is a year since a Senate Committee recommended the laws forcing a nuclear waste facility on the Territory be overturned.

"And this comes amidst an increased push by the Liberal Party to develop and expand the nuclear industry in Australia," she said.

"So we believe that if the nuclear waste dump in the Territory goes ahead, there'll be increasing pressure on those same communities to host an international high-level nuclear waste dump some time in the future."