THE Federal Government was last night accused of conning the people of the Territory as it emerged that entire sections of the new nuclear waste law are exactly the same as the previous government's laws.

The Rudd Government had long promised to repeal the law that could force a nuclear waste dump on the Northern Territory.

But its new Bill, which was introduced by Resources Minister Martin Ferguson in Canberra yesterday, has the same effect.

The sections on overriding Territory laws, and suspending environmental and Aboriginal heritage protection laws, have been copied word for word from the Howard Government legislation.

See a section of the old legislation here.

Muckaty Station, north of Tennant Creek, has been confirmed by Mr Ferguson as the only site being examined for the storage facility.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlum said Territorians had been misled.

"At the very least it's a con," he said. "I think it's one of the nastiest acts of legislative bastardry I've seen since I took up the job."

It has divided Territory Labor.

The party's NT president Trish Crossin said she voted for the new law in federal caucus, despite a motion from the NT Labor conference in 2008 saying the Territory should not host the waste facility, and that Muckaty plans should be scrapped.

"(It) reinstated procedural rights, fairness, environmental and scientific assessment and that's why I supported it," she said.

Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon said he also voted for the new law.

Chief Minister Paul Henderson opposed the dump, saying science had been "thrown out of the window".

"What I do find quite extraordinary is that the Commonwealth of Australia would look to be siting the national nuclear waste repository based on the nomination of a very remote parcel of land by a very small number of people here in the Northern Territory," he said.

He said he would stand by NT laws banning the storage of nuclear waste.

But these will be overruled.

Mr Ferguson's spokesman Michael Bradley said the dump will not be imposed from Canberra.

CLP business spokesman David Tollner said the Opposition had no problem with Muckaty Station being chosen because it had been nominated by traditional owners.