A South Australian Indigenous leader says he willing to go to court to stop the building of a nuclear power plant in Port Augusta under the Coalition’s energy plan if elected at the next Federal election.

Nukunu elder Lindsay Thomas said his community was not just against the plant ideas but against nuclear as a whole.

“Our people don’t believe in this, we don’t believe it should have even been dug out of the ground anywhere in Australia,” Mr Thomas told the ABC. “We believe it’s poison.”

“You put that stuff in the ground, that kills that earth forever, we can’t do that, we cannot do that.”

The proposed site of a nuclear plant in or near Port Augusta has proven unpopular with indigenous groups, with some vowing to take the government to court to stop it.

Mr Thomas told the ABC the Indigenous population had a spiritual connection to the land and made mention of the work to stop the federal government’s attempt to dump nuclear medical waste in Kimba.