The first shipment of Australian uranium has left for India.

Three years after the Federal Government officially signed a uranium supply deal with India - the first of its kind with a country that is not part of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty - Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced the shipment is en route.

But Ms Bishop would not say how big the shipment is, where it departed from, or where in India it is heading.

“I understand the first shipment is on its way. That's my understanding, it’s a commercial arrangement,” Ms Bishop said.

Parliament passed legislation enabling the sales last December, after years of debate about supplying the dangerous resource to a country with nuclear weapons that will not sign the non-proliferation treaty.

Experts speaking in the lead up to the supply treaty in 2014 revealed that the International Atomic Energy Agency had concerns about India's safeguards.

But Ms Bishop says Australian uranium will not be misused.

“We cleared all of the parliamentary requirements for the civilian nuclear supply agreement, and we see India as a country that has adhered to its non-proliferation assurances,” she said.

“Australia will be continuing to send uranium to India depending upon the commercial arrangements.”

Prices and demand have plummeted since the Fukushima disaster in 2011, but earlier this year, India announced plans to build 10 new reactors, launching a $14 billion program that the Australian Government wants to be involved in.

Australia also has a uranium supply deal with Russia, but this was suspended in 2014 following Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

Australia then signed a supply deal with Ukraine.