A Northern Territory Labor MP has broken ranks to oppose the use of the NT's Muckaty Station to store nuclear waste.

Damian Hale, the Labor member for Solomon, says he does not want the nuclear waste dump to be located at Muckaty Station, 120km north of Tennant Creek.

"The more I have read about this proposed area the more I am convinced we have got it wrong," he told parliament on Thursday, adding a holistic approach to the disposal of nuclear waste was needed.

"Isn't it only fair that all Australians take responsibility in how to deal with its safe disposal?" Mr Hale asked.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson last month introduced a bill to the lower house of parliament to repeal the Howard government's Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act. Labor wants to replace it with the National Radioactive Waste Management bill.

The site at Muckaty is firming as the most likely storage place for medical isotope waste from Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor.

Opposition infrastructure spokesman Ian Macfarlane told parliament on Thursday that Labor's new laws largely replicated the previous government's, with only some tinkering at the margins.

But while critical of Labor's record on the controversial issue, Mr Macfarlane said the opposition would support the measure.

Mr Macfarlane said now the question regarding the storage of nuclear waste was to be answered, there should be a debate about nuclear power generation.

"It is totally irresponsible for this country to continue forward in a climate-challenged world striving for reliable, low-emission energy not to have a sensible debate about nuclear energy," he said.

Liberal MP Dr Dennis Jensen said nuclear energy was safe, economically viable and with the path now paved, its waste could be stored responsibly.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said once the site was constructed, low-level waste such as contaminated laboratory equipment, smoke detectors, and waste used in radiotherapy will be able to be buried.

Mr Ferguson said current sites were not designed for long-term nuclear waste storage and creating a single depository would reduce safety and security risks.

The National Radioactive Waste Management Bill would also ensure procedural fairness in deciding on any nuclear waste storage site.

The bill passed the House of Representatives and will now be debated by the Senate.