One of the arguments being made to explain why we need a radioactive waste dump in Australia is for the storage of waste from nuclear medicine.

Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson as argued strongly about the link between the two issues.

He told Julia Christensen, "We need a repository. We need nuclear medicine. All Australians benefit from the outcome of establishing a low and medium level repository in Australia, because half a million Australians a year demand access to nuclear medicine."

So if so many of us are using it - has it got you wondering exactly what nuclear medicine is? And if radioactive material is so important for medical procedures - why is their concern about storing it?

Nuclear radiologist Peter Karamoskos spoke to Leon Compton on the Morning program. He explained that the majority of nuclear medicine procedures do not produce waste that requires long term storage.

He says that "I think the Minister is probably a little bit confused about what he refers to as nuclear medicine.... nearly all nuclear medicine involves short acting radio isotopes which usually decay on site, and then are disposed of into the normal environment."

"The amount of waste is commensurately small when compared to the vast bulk of the waste which will be stored at the repository, which is the nuclear fuel waste."