Tamil Nadu and Kereal politicians have stymied the creation of an Indian Neutrino Observatory India based underground in a cavern in Tamil Nadu for fear of it being used to build atomic weapons or as a radioactive waste dump.
The project, said to cost Rs 1500 crores and hoping to be one of the world's largest basic science laboratories to understand the very fundamental nature of the universe was sanctioned by the Central government some time ago but has not made much progress beyond that.
The idea is to make the world's biggest magnet and detector weighing over 52,000 tons to identify an elementary particle called the neutrino, according to NDTV.
With some coaxing and cajoling Kerala's former Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and leader of the Marxist-led oppostion Left Democratic Front, now seems amenable to the project but Tamil Nadu politician Vaiko is against the project and has cited several fears.
However, NDTV has quoted the Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, Sandeep Trivedi, as saying that there "there was no bomb making at all" and that it is "a pure science experiment". "It has no strategic angle whatsoever to it. This is for pure advancement of human knowledge," he added.
