"This reactor remained operative for 30 years and must be closed down," said Vanunu on Monday.

"It is dangerous and could cause a catastrophe like the one at Chernobyl if it continued to operate under the present conditions," he added.

"It might cause a catastrophe for Jordan and for the whole Middle East."

"I think Jordan has the right to enquire about what Israel is doing (with this reactor) since it is very close to the Israeli borders (with Jordan)," he told Aljazeera.

Whistleblower

Vanunu was jailed in 1986, on what an Israeli court deemed treason, after disclosing information to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper which led analysts to conclude Israel produced nuclear warheads.

The 49-year technician said on the day of his release last April that he was "kidnapped by Israeli spies in an apartment in Italy in September 1986, drugged and then kept on a yacht for seven days, chained to a bed", before being brought to Israel, where he was imprisoned in October of the same year.

Israel has never acknowledged having a nuclear arsenal, but foreign experts are convinced that the country has clandestinely produced between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads.