A process that will see Australia get its first nuclear waste dump against the wishes of the site's traditional owners will not change under Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Before the 2007 election, Labor promised to throw out the Howard government's plans to build a receptacle for low and medium-level radioactive waste at Muckaty Station, in the Northern Territory.

But in government, Labor instigated a process that could still see a dump built on the site without the consent of all its traditional owners.

Indigenous rights and anti-nuclear campaigners had hoped the unpopular plan, which is set to be challenged in the federal court this month, would be halted under Labor's new leadership.

But Ms Gillard on Wednesday told reporters in Darwin it would remain.

"We need, as a nation, to solve the problem of where we will store low and medium-level waste ... generated in processes valuable to the whole community like nuclear medicine," she said.

"There is a further process to go through in relation to Muckaty and we will go through that process."

Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) spokesman Dave Sweeney said it was a disappointing decision.

"New leadership is a good time to review bad decisions, and Muckaty is a very bad decision," he told AAP.

"We do have the responsibility to store our national radioactive waste effectively and responsibly, but we can't do that in a manner that's inconsistent with international standards and practice."

ACF last week launched its "Dump the Dump" campaign, raising money to campaign against the Muckaty proposal in the lead-up to the federal election.

It has raised enough money for a billboard in Melbourne, the home city of Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, and hopes to raise enough to send a group of traditional owners to the city to voice their objections.