TRADITIONAL owners have finally woken up to the fact that they are being shafted by the Federal Government over the nuclear waste dump.

Canberra will give the Ngapa clan $12 million for allowing the dump to be built on their land near Tennant Creek.

Of course, that's far more than the 225ha would be worth on the open market.

But that's not the point -- the Federal Government should pay much more for a solution to Australia's nagging nuclear waste problem.

But how much more and how should it be allocated?

The $12 million already promised should not go just to the 40 members of the Ngapa clan -- it should be spread evenly among all the 395 traditional owners of Muckaty station.

Any extra money squeezed out of Canberra should go to benefit the wider community.

It has been suggested that the Feds should compensate Territorians for hosting the nuclear waste dump by sealing the Tanami Highway, which would benefit the NT economy.

That would cost hundreds of millions of dollars -- but Canberra could at least make a start.

Or money could be allocated to improve the hospital at Tennant Creek, by upgrading facilities or paying bonuses to lure doctors and nurses to work there.

Canberra is using the Territory's constitutional weakness to force the waste dump upon us.

Of course, many Territorians accept that Australia has an obligation to store its nuclear refuse -- and Muckaty is as good a site as any.

But the Federal Government should pay more than $12 million to be rid of a problem that has plagued it since the idea of a waste dump was first mooted in 1988.