Northern Land Council (NLC) chief executive Kim Hill says he has not met with traditional owners of the area earmarked for Australia's first nuclear waste dump.

The Gillard government plans a dump site for low-level nuclear waste, most of which will stem from nuclear medicine, at Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam asked Mr Hill and the council's principal legal officer, Ron Levy, in a Senate estimates hearing on Friday if either of them had visited Tennant Creek or the surrounding areas to discuss the dump.

Mr Levy said he visited at the time the Muckaty Station site was nominated in 2007.

Mr Hill, who has been in his role for the past three years, said he had visited the region to talk about other NLC issues but not the waste dump specifically.

"We do have a presence in that region and there is always an opportunity for traditional owners to talk about and consult with my officers regarding all matters... under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act," he said.

Senator Ludlam asked Mr Hill what people had to do to get a meeting with him on Muckaty Station.

"I belive that we've done what we are required to do under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act," he replied.

"The forums you're referring to in Tennant Creek, we don't necessarily believe that it's our responsibility.

"It's the government and the relevant minister who needs to address some of the concerns people have."

Senator Ludlam said people there wanted to know why the land was nominated for use as a nuclear waste dump.

He asked if anyone had contacted the NLC in the past three years to try and get a hearing with Mr Hill or Mr Levy on the Muckaty Station issue.

Mr Levy said he didn't know of any such request, but then Mr Hill said he had been invited for a visit.

"The information they were seeking, I don't have the statutory responsibility to respond to some of the questions they were asking," he said.

Mr Levy said no traditional owners had approached the NLC to nominate another site for a nuclear waste dump since Muckaty Station was put forward four years ago.

Legislation setting up the dump in that spot is before the Senate but the Greens don't want it debated again until after the Federal Court delivers a decision about which Aboriginal groups are the rightful custodians and traditional owners of Muckaty Station.