Nuclear waste continues to emit radiation for about 700 years while the containers that would be used for dumping it would last only 50 to 60 years, says Rai, who has been a coordinator of science and technology committees of Members of Parliament.

This necessitates frequent replacement of the containers and the disposal of the used containers contaminated with radio-active substances. Any crack in the containers and leak due to other reasons would result in nuclear pollution, spelling disaster in terms of its toll on people and environment, according to Rai.

Both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh fall on fault zones prone to earthquakes. Tremors could damage the containers which in turn would raise the magnitude of the quake, according to the engineer who has worked on projects to checkasbestos pollution in the united states. He has also made suggestions to BARC for disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Designing containers which would last until the nuclear waste remained radio-active will solve the disposal problem, he says.

He has already conveyed the suggestion to BARC and offered to develop prototypes of such boxes. Last week, BARC announced that after a decade-long hunt across the country for a safe nuclear waste repository it had short-listed areas in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Boxes containing nuclear waste would be buried 800 metres below the surface of the ground.

Rai said the United States was in serious trouble, being unable to cope with the disposal problem. Over the past 50 years, it had buried billions of boxes containing nuclear waste at various locations there. Robots were being used to replace the old containers but these also got contaminated, creating further problems.

Stating that India would find itself in a similar position in the next 15 years, Rai said this couldbe avoided by restricting the use of nuclear energy to defence purposes alone.