Yesterday's news on nation's future source of energy

Source: The Star

Our first nuke plant by 2021

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has approved the setting up of a nuclear power plant which is slated to start operations in 2021.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said his ministry had been given the go-ahead by the Economic Council to start identifying suitable sites.

Declining to reveal the possible sites and the total power deliverable, Chin said the nuclear plant needed to be built in an area with high power demand.

Full of energy: Chin (second from left) admiring the Diamond Building, the future eight-storey office for Energy Commission located in Putrajaya, after launching the first Carbon Neutral Conference on Sustainable Building held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Tuesday. — Bernama

“Building of the first plant needs a lead time of at least 10 years. We need to look at the safety aspects, human resources and the location,” he told reporters after launching the first Carbon Neutral Conference on Sustainable Buildings in South-East Asia yesterday.

Chin said the International Atomic Energy Agency had the final say on whether the plant could be built.

“Technology know-how and providers may possibly come from either South Korea, China, France or Japan,” he added.

On the disposal of radioactive nuclear waste, he said the matter would be worked out with the technology provider at a later date.

Chin stressed that a nuclear plant was sorely needed to meet the country’s accelerating energy needs and ensured its energy security.

He pointed out that national energy demand topped out at 14,000 megawatts (MW) out of a maximum capacity of 23,000MW.

“We do not want a situation where we have to start buying our coal from foreign sources. Nuclear energy is the only viable option towards our long-term energy needs.

“Our energy mix is rather unhealthy. We are depending too much on coal and oil,” he said.

Chin stressed that despite nuclear energy’s astronomical start-up costs, it was more cost- and energy-efficient than dotting the country with coal-fired power plants.

“Our renewal energy sector is also very small. It has only a supplementary role,” he said.

On the political fallout from building a nuclear plant, Chin said the Government would be ready to explain it to the people on the need for one.