Speaking on ABC Radio after last week’s dust storms, Mr Parnell said: “What we've seen from this extreme weather in recent days is that dust can go everywhere - it could end up on Eyre Peninsula, it could end up on the eastern seaboard.

“BHP Billiton must be forced by the (State) Government to manage radioactive waste, stockpiles and their tailings forever.”

He said the dangers of an Olympic Dam mine expansion spreading radioactive dust across wide areas of Australia will be an issue for centuries to come.

Mr Parnell’s comments coincided with Academy Award-nominated documentary maker David Bradbury also claiming that the red dust dumped on Sydney and the east coast last week was a reason to be concerned about BHP Billiton's proposal to convert Olympic Dam into an open cut operation.

Mr Bradbury, who has made four documentaries on nuclear issues, said figures in the Olympic Dam environmental impact study suggest 70 million tonnes of radioactive tailings will be dumped at the site annually.

He said the tailings will contain “alpha radiation” which is known to be carcinogenic to humans and animals.

“My grave concern is that with the open-cut mine expansion that BHP Billiton wants permission from state and federal governments to go ahead with, that the radioactive tailings left behind will blow over the eastern coast centres of the most populated cities of Australia,” Mr Bradbury said.

State Mineral Resources Development Minister, Paul Holloway, has also told Parliament BHP Billiton will have to prepare a supplementary environmental impact statement addressing dust management with the planned mine expansion.

He said the company will have to give an assurance it can manage the dust from its proposed open cut mining operation before the expansion is approved.