KUCHING: The government is to ensure its nuclear power plant project will be 100 per cent safe before embarking on it in 2021,
ENERGY WORKSHOP: Daud (left) talks on safety. Daud Mohamad is on the right.
Speaking at a press conference after officiating at the ‘Radiation Protection Conference and Workshop 2010’ yesterday, Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman said: “Most importantly, nuclear related government agencies including Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) ensure that safety would not be compromised and taken for granted.
“The government would also make sure that there would be a good team of scientists available to handle the task of ensuring that nuclear technology implementation is 100 per cent safe. In addition, Mosti has the resources and expertise to implement the usage of nuclear energy.”
Having said that, Daud however stressed that there was yet to be a decision on the use of nuclear power as an alternative energy source as the government was still researching the matter, and the commission for the first Malaysia nuclear reactor was still under consideration.
Daud who is also Assistant Infrastructure Development and Communication Minister reminded the public not to worry as the safety aspect of nuclear technology was very much under control.
Stressing that the accident rate was very low over the years, Daud said the public must be educated and fully informed about the safety of nuclear usage so they would not be unduly alarmed by it. In the country, only four reported minor incidents had happened due to radiation exposure.
Saying that the safety aspect had evolved in the implementation of nuclear technology, Daud referred to the 1986 Chernobyl incident at Priyat, Ukraine as being “overly highlighted” by the international press even though it resulted in almost 50 deaths with 300,000 people evacuated, based on the 2005 report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Asked whether the state would consider using nuclear technology, Daud replied that Sarawak was lucky to have its hydro resources and would rely heavily on hydropower for the time being.
“At the moment, we are able to generate about 3,400 megawatts and hopefully the state will have the potential to harness about 20,000 MW by 2020-2030 and having said so, we are still not able to export. As for Sabah and the peninsula, they have to consider other resources of sustainable energy as natural resources such as gas might only last about 30 years.
“After this, we should prepare ourselves because energy usage is increasing and our option limited. The current coal power plant needed coal of high quality and as most of our coal is imported, the government must think of an alternative,” Daud said, adding that once nuclear energy was built, it could last up to 50 years.
In agreement with Daud, Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia) director-general Datuk Dr Daud Mohamad said since natural gas was depleting, the government might as well start considering more value-added products.
He said: “Malaysia is looking seriously to build one which would be able to produce about 1,000 MW. Energy demand is very high and increasing, but our resources are limited. At the moment, we are still looking at the energy situation and our research and development is ongoing.
“It would take 10 years at least before the first plant could start operating,”
Daud Mohamad even mentioned that due to the safety aspect, lots of consideration had to be taken into account before the country could even think of building a nuclear plant, such as the technical expertise at both national and international level, and conventions and treaties that have to be settled.
Assuring that the technology would be very safe, he added: “Once nuclear energy is used, the public should not be worried. Even though usage is extensive, such conference and seminar as we have today is to ensure the end-user is protected entirely.
“The capacity of the plant would also be considered from the energy demand perspective.”
When asked whether the country had the expertise to manage a nuclear power plant, Daud Mohamad replied that foreign expertise would be used in the early stage, before being replaced by locals.
He added that the transition would be phased out slowly, considering the importance of expertise familiarisation and component localisation.
“Malaysia would seek collaboration and advice from experts from IAEA, United Nation’s Specialise Technical Agency and other countries such as Korea, Japan, United States, France and even China to some extent,” he said.