Government to pick single site to store Australia’s nuclear waste within a year

Shortlist includes three sites in South Australia and one each in Queensland, NSW and Northern Territory, but plan will only proceed with public support

The Turnbull government has set itself a one-year deadline to lock in a single site to store Australia's nuclear waste, after revealing a shortlist of six locations and promising it will proceed only with community support.

Conservationists vowed to "closely track every step of this long and contested road". The deadline of December 2016 sets the scene for the government to make decisions before, or shortly after, the next federal election.