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MALAYSIA: Gov’t Urged to Explore Alternative Energy Sources

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 2010 (IPS) - Instead of going nuclear, the Malaysian government should be harnessing alternative energy resources, which are adequate in supply, says the country’s anti-nuclear lobby.

In a move that surprised many, among other reasons for lack of public consultations, minister for energy, green technology and water Peter Chin Fah Kui announced on May 3 that the government had approved plans to build a nuclear power station to produce electricity and have it up and running by 2021, citing the country’s growing energy needs.

Chin’s statement that the country’s depleting fossil fuel alongside its expanding energy needs warranted the use of inexhaustible nuclear power was dismissed as rubbish by environmentalists and energy experts alike.

Malaysia had long argued that nuclear power was unnecessary in a country blessed with ample alternative energy sources.

Mohideen Abdul Kader, a senior adviser to the environmental group Friends of the Earth Malaysia, expressed anger at the sudden announcement.

“We are upset and angry that the government does not want to engage with stakeholders. It is shocking news. Under ex-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the government said it was not going nuclear. There is now a total U-turn on our policy,” he said.

Chin told IPS the government weighed “all available” options for long-term energy needs before it decided to go nuclear. “We have to look at energy security. No country can grow without energy, no gross domestic product can progress without energy,” he said in an interview.

“Clearly, Malaysia has more energy than it needs. Without any economic grounds or energy security justification, why is Malaysia going nuclear?” asked Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the Malaysian Democratic Action Party and chief minister of the opposition-ruled Penang state, situated north of West Malaysia.

“Alternative sources of energy are the way (to go) and Malaysia is rich and blessed in these areas,” prominent environmentalist Gurmit Singh told IPS. “We should exploit these alternative sources before even thinking of going nuclear.

“Malaysia must be ready to develop energy-efficient technology and brave enough to invest in solar, hydro and wind power,” he added. Singh, who heads the Center for Environment, Technology and Development, a local think tank, warned that nuclear power was capital-intensive and very risky, because it generates radioactive waste that has to be discarded.

“Malaysians wonder what assurances can be given in relation to safety and environment following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in Ukraine that claimed 56 lives and resulted in 4,000 cancer deaths,” he said in a statement. “There are obvious and real concerns over nuclear power.”

Singh added that the cost of nuclear waste disposal is expensive. “Once a country enters the nuclear path, it faces a mountain of bills,” he said. He urged the government to instead bolster energy efficiency and turn to other renewable sources like wind and solar power.

The size, composition and foreign partner that will be involved in the construction of the planned nuclear plant are still unknown.

In 2008 state energy corporation Tenaga Nasional, which has private shareholdings, said it had the capacity to build the country’s first 1,000- megawatt nuclear power plant at a cost of 3 billion U.S. dollars using foreign technology and capital assistance.

The government had asked Tenaga to study the nuclear option because oil prices were surging then and oil and coal-fired power plants were becoming too costly to maintain.

“There is a strong undercurrent of Malay nationalism behind the urge to go nuclear,” charged opposition lawmaker Murugesan Kulasegaran, adding it is part of same macho ‘Malaysia Boleh’ (Malaysia can!) culture that sent a Malaysian into space on a Russian rocket.

In October 2007, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched Malaysia’s first astronaut into space, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a university lecturer and orthopedic surgeon.

Malaysia’s south-east Asian neighbours, namely, Thailand and Vietnam, have already unveiled plans to operate their first nuclear power plants by 2020 while Indonesia has plans to build its own on Java Island by 2015.

But unlike these countries, critics say Malaysia has a 40 percent energy reserve margin, double the government’s target of 20 percent reserves, making the construction of a nuclear reactor unnecessary.

Malaysia’s power usage is about 14,000 megawatts now out of a total national capacity of 23,000 megawatts. Several giant dams with additional 7,000-megawatt capacity are coming on stream on Borneo Island, partly occupied by the Malaysia states of Sarawak and Sabah, with plans to ship the energy across the South China Sea using undersea cables.

Malaysia uses coal and natural gas to generate most of its electricity supply. The government has repeatedly warned that the cost of relying on both commodities is expected to spiral in the decades ahead as supply diminishes and demand increases.