The results of a nuclear waste dump ballot fall short of the "broad community support" required for the project to go ahead, an anti-nuclear group says.
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A resident vote at Kimba, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, found that 61.6 per cent of the town was in favour of a local nuclear waste facility.
But Mara Bonacci, Friends of the Earth SA nuclear waste campaigner, said the result does not meet Resources Minister Matthew Canavan's 65 per cent benchmark for community support.
"The Minister should abandon plans to dump on South Australia - the vote clearly fails to meet the government's own criteria for broad community support," she said.
A total of 734 votes were cast in the non-binding ballot, conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission and considered a key factor in the decision on where to build the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility.
Two sites in Kimba and a a third site at Hawker, in the Flinders Ranges, were shortlisted as possible locations for the facility.
The Kimba vote was at the centre of a Federal Court battle after native titleholders, the Barngarla people, were excluded from the council-organised vote.
They argued the poll was unlawful and discriminatory, but that view was rejected by the Federal Court in July.
Ms Bonacci said their exclusion skewed the results of the vote.
"Barngarla Traditional Owners, who fought their exclusion from the ballot in the Human Rights Commission and the courts, are clearly opposed," she said.
"The majority of South Australians are opposed."
The federal government is yet to reveal its preferred location but said recently it was mindful of the need to reach a decision.
A vote will begin at Hawker next week, and the views of business owners and residents within a five-kilometre radius of the three nominated sites will also be surveyed.
Australian Associated Press
