South Australia hopes to decide whether to expand its nuclear industry within 12 months.
The state's royal commission into nuclear energy officially commenced on Thursday with the release of formal terms of reference.
Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce has been asked to investigate whether SA should embrace nuclear production, enrichment and storage to boost its lagging economy.
He will have until May 2016 to report to government but Premier Jay Weatherill says he hopes to see the issue resolved within 12 months.
The Abbott government has asked for nominations for sites to store nuclear waste by May 5 but Mr Weatherill said SA wouldn't be rushed.
"We have been talking about this nuclear waste repository for a very long period of time," he told reporters.
"I know the Commonwealth are anxious obviously to act on that but I don't think it should lead to the unnecessary truncation of the process."
The royal commission will weigh up the benefits of nuclear against the potential impact on the environment and the community.
But it won't look into withdrawing from uranium mining or the use of nuclear for military purposes.
Greens MLC Mark Parnell said the royal commission should have been designed to consider scaling back involvement in nuclear energy.
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