A remote shire in Western Australia has been caught off guard by rumours that it could host a nuclear waste dump.

Iron ore miner Gindalbie Metals has nominated Badja Station as a potential site to store radioactive waste.

But the site sits just 70 kilometres from the town of Morawa, home to more than 600 people.

Gindalbie nominated Badja Station as well as another site in the northern Goldfields, with both applications submitted to the Federal Government as part of a national tender process.

The government has called for proposal for a nuclear waste facility to hold medium and low level waste currently stored in hospitals, universities and other private facilities.

Moving these small, separate stashes into a central storage centre has a number of advantages, safety and security foremost.

But the plan has met strong opposition from residents nationwide, who say they not what nuclear waste in or near their back yards.

Shire of Morawa president Karen Chappel said she was stunned when a member of the public told her about the application this week.

“It could have an absolute major impact on our shire and to just hear via the telephone that this is what's happening [is unreasonable],” she told the ABC.

“I seriously would have thought that the Shire of Morawa was owed the courtesy of being told that this was on the run.”

She said the shire had yet formed an official position.

“When we've gained the information that we think is necessary, our council will be taking a formal position on where we sit with regard to this proposal,” she said.

Under the Federal Government's selection process, states and territories will not have the right to veto any decisions.

“That may be legislation, that may be the principal of it, but underneath it all, every politician is put there by population and the people,” Ms Chappel said.

“They have an obligation and a responsibility to sit and listen to how their decision affects us and I would suggest they would need to sit and listen to this one.”

Badja Station is disputed land, with a native title claim by the local Widi people still being processed.

Widi spokesperson Clayton Lewis told reporters he was shocked to hear of Gindalbie's proposal.

“It was a bolt out of the blue ... [we're] just amazed that it's going to happen or potentially going to happen in our country,” he said.

“We think if we can get a decent body of support at this early stage, we can certainly contest it.”

A shortlist of potential dump sites will be made public in July.

Gindalbie Metals claims to have undertaken consultation with representatives of local communities and stakeholders before making its nominations.

The company has pledged to perform more extensive public consultations as the project progresses.

The iron ore miner has been feeling the strain of low iron prices this year and is getting ready to slash 15 per cent of its workforce.

Local Greens representatives say the nuclear waste dump proposal is a “blatant cash grab from a struggling company”.