Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government should not rush into building a nuclear power plant as once it is activated "there can be no turning back".

"I have a different view about the nuclear power plant. I don't like nuclear power plants simply because the technology is not quite complete. We don't know what to do with the nuclear waste. Once you activate uranium there is no going back.

"And, we used to have some problem with even the little radioactive material that we mined before called "amang" which was used in the production of colour televisions.

"Now they don't use it (amang) anymore for colour television. Getting rid of it was very difficult.

"We had to isolate one square mile of land in order to bury the activated "amang," he said after launching the first locally-produced Peugeot 207 in Putrajaya today.

Asked on alternative sources, Dr Mahathir said; "We have four fuel policies namely hydro, coal, fuel, oil and gas.

"We can still find some natural sources of fuel, for example, we can produce diesel from palm oil and jatropha plant.

"We should investigate these and other sources such as wind and wave power that is being developed and discovered today," he added.

Last month, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui said the first nuclear power plant was expected to start operations in 2021.

- Bernama