KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has to turn to nuclear power as an
alternative source of electricity for its rapidly growing economy,
an official from a nuclear agency said.Noramly Muslim, the chairman
of the Malaysian Nuclear Licensing Board, said Malaysia would need
at least two nuclear reactors, state Bernama news agency
reported.
He said nuclear energy was seen as the best alternative to
depleting oil and gas, Malaysia's main fuels for power
generation.
"To develop a nuclear reactor, we need some 15 years. Indonesia has
already started its nuclear program in the 1960s," Noramly
said.
He added the government planned on using nuclear energy to generate
power after 2020 but that the schedule could be accelerated.
Noramly said that Indonesia and Thailand will be using nuclear
energy in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
In July the government indicated that Malaysia could turn to
nuclear power to reduce its dependence on oil.
Bernama quoted the deputy vice-chancellor of a Malaysian
university, Sukiman Sarmani, as saying scientists in the country
were just waiting for the "green light" from the government to
jump-start a nuclear program.
"I don't think Malaysia will face opposition from the global
community. Our case and Iran's are different. Our uranium
enrichment process might be done in another country and then
imported," Sukiman said.
"Whether we like it or not, the world would have to depend on
nuclear from 2020 onwards until 2070," he said.
Sukiman said the government was also developing technology to
harness wind and solar power to produce electricity by 2050 or
2070.
Malaysia is an oil-exporter, but in June Prime Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi said the era of "cheap oil" was over and that the
world faced an energy crisis as emerging economies and developed
nations competed for scarce resources.
Malaysia had promoted the use of natural gas to reduce dependence
on oil under a fuel diversification policy started in 1981. Coal
and hydroelectric power are the other main sources of
electricity.
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