The report, from the Commonwealth’s treaties committee, urged greater safeguards and stronger diplomatic efforts before Australia sells uranium to India, with the nation encouraged to become a party to the comprehensive nuclear non-proliferation treaty and separate its civil and military nuclear facilities.

Committee chairman, Liberal MP Wyatt Roy, said there were significant risks in selling uranium to India, particularly while there was no independent nuclear regulator and a best practice safety regime for nuclear facilities.

“Both the Auditor-General of India and the International Atomic Energy Commission have identified a number of weaknesses in the regulatory framework that jeopardise nuclear safety and security,’’ Roy said.

"The committee has made a recommendation that the sale of uranium to India only commence when these weaknesses have been addressed.”

The report found uranium sales to India could be between 1000 and 2000 tonnes and worth up to $225 million in export earnings by 2030.

The sale of uranium to India could be worth $1.4 billion per year to South Australian uranium miners and create up to 3800 extra jobs Australia-wide as the industry doubled, the report found.

Labor MP and deputy chairman of the committee, Kelvin Thomson, said the report should act as an "orange light", warning the government to tread carefully in pursuing new export options.

University of Melbourne professor Ross Garnaut will to be called as the first witness as the SA Royal Commission today to address climate change impacts of nuclear power, which is headed by former SA governor Kevin Scarce.

The commission is examining the possible expansion of the state's role in the nuclear industry, a first for Australia.

The inquiry is looking at SA’s involvement in the mining, enrichment, energy and storage phases in the life cycle of nuclear fuel.

The inquiry comes at a time when the Commonwealth has also been forced to consider the role of nuclear power generation in Australia, and the best way to cope with nuclear waste.

Last month SA Family First Senator Bob Day put forward a proposal to amend legislation that bans nuclear power stations and uranium enrichment in Australia, but it was defeated.

While the amendment failed on the floor of the Senate, Senator Day said he was encouraged by the amount of support he received for the proposal elsewhere.

Liberal MP and pro-nuclear activist Dr Denis Jensen was one of those who spoke in support of the change.

Dr Jensen, who tried to start a similar debate in 2005, described nuclear power as cheap, clean, safe and sustainable.

Australia as around one third of the world’s known uranium reserves.

Dr Jensen said the McNair Ingenuity Research showed that between 1979 and 2009 those in favour of the construction of nuclear power stations increased from 34% to 49%, with around 10% undecided.

“More people are in favour of nuclear power than are opposed. It is not the will of the people to take nuclear energy off the table,” he said.

“If the Greens and Labor do not embrace nuclear power as a possibility, then they are not serious in their assertions about reducing CO2 emissions. They also cannot continue to argue that we should have a nuclear ban as it is economically too expensive.

“In the national interest, it is time to move past the politics of fear.”

He said Asia and Europe were embracing nuclear power, with Poland planning on having its first nuclear plant by 2020 and Britain deciding to replace its ageing reactors and create new sites, although France and Germany have made steps away from nuclear in recent times.

China's nuclear generation capacity is on track to go from nine gigawatts to 70GW by 2020, with some reports that 200 new reactors will be needed by 2050.

“There is also a huge market in India, which has been a contentious issue that Australia cannot ignore,” Dr Jensen said.

“This new economic giant has 15 operating nuclear power plants and seven under construction. India knows that the only way to enhance the lives of its people is via access to power.

“Currently, an estimated 400 million Indians still have no access to electricity. Nuclear power can change that dramatically.”

Nuclear power in India could also kill the giant Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s once and for all, something of a Clayton’s choice for environmentalists.