New Build

Malaysia’s nuclear energy strategy is officially out of the starting blocks. The finer details, however, have yet to be worked out.

By Paul French, Asia correspondent

Last month, during a press conference with Malaysia’s state news agency, Bernama, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, told reporters that he had authorised the nuclear energy strategy set out by the Ministry of energy, green technology and water – namely, to build a nuclear reactor by 2021.

During the same press conference, Malaysia’s Energy Minister, Peter Chin Fah Kui, also confirmed the South East Asian nation’s intention to build a nuclear reactor. Citing the country’s growing energy demand, which at present relies on a national energy mix of gas, coal and hydropower, Minister Chin described nuclear as a viable and necessary option for Malaysia. 

So far, details about Malaysia’s possible first nuclear reactor have been sketchy to say the least. Energy Minister Peter Chin has confirmed no more than that his ministry is currently conducting a study into constructing Malaysia’s first plant and that they had estimated the reactor would cost approximately RM20 billion (€5bn; US$6.1bn).

Mixed response

Location is the first big decision to be taken. So far, the announcement has sparked a series of protests against the reactor being located in their vicinity, while other states are vying against each other to host it.

Dr Sukiman Sarmani of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Nuclear Science Department, told Nuclear Energy Insider that the west coast of peninsula Malaysia adjacent to the Straits of Malacca, is the most promising region.

Likely locations in this area include Batu Pahat in Johor State, Pulau Angsa in Selangor State and Sitiawan in Perak State. Dr Sukiman says both Malacca and Pahang States have expressed their willingness to host the reactor.

One suggestion mooted, the Klang Valley, looks unlikely. While close to the energy intensive capital Kuala Lumpur and much of Malaysia’s manufacturing industry, Klang Valley is highly populated with over seven million people. Despite support from several local politicians, Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board says it considers the location to be inappropriate.

Energy Minister Chin told reporters that, once the location has been selected, there will be a thorough Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA), and Radiological Impact Assessment (RIA). An important factor is seismology, given that earthquakes and tremors are not unknown in the region.

Seismology has bedevilled previous attempts to build reactors in both the Philippines and Indonesia and the 2004 tsunami lingers in many memories along Malaysia’s western coast.

Waste storage an issue

Treatment of nuclear waste will be another key issue. While a low-level radioactive material storage facility already exists in Belanja, Perak State, it is too small to handle the volume generated by a large reactor.

Dr Sukiman of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia suggests that fuel waste could also be kept in a disused tin mine. He points out that Malaysia, and Perak State in particular, have a large number of deep and disused tin mines that could be made suitable for waste storage. As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Malaysia is not allowed to process spent nuclear fuel from a reactor.

However, the use of mines as waste storage sites could raise issues relating to ground water contamination, as has been the case with disused mines used to store radioactive tailings and waste materials in France.

Malaysia has yet to decide on the type of reactor it will use. So far the Energy Ministry has made vague references to ‘third and fourth generation nuclear reactors’.  Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, the director-general of Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board, told Bernama reporters that the government is looking into building two 500MV plants.

On the contrary, Dr Sukiman believes a 2,000MV plant would be necessary for a 25% energy reserve that would be sufficient to attract foreign investment.

How and from where the reactor and the experts to construct it will be sourced remains to be seen. The secretary-general of the Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia (WECAM), Sakina Mohamed Piarapakaran, told Nuclear Energy Insider that Malaysia should delay the project until it has trained up sufficient skilled staff to operate the reactor.

Malaysia did previously consider nuclear power during the 1970s oil crises, but a combination of more stable oil prices and the discovery of new fields in Malaysia by the state petroleum company, Petronas, placed these plans on the back burner.

Critics of the Malaysian plan have suggested that Kuala Lumpur simply keeping up appearances with its South East Asian counterparts. They point out that Indonesia is currently waiting for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's decision to build nuclear power plants in order to increase power capacity in the country, while Singapore is also reportedly mulling plans for a reactor too.

If the Indonesian president approves the plan, Indonesia will have a reactor by 2016. In the hyper-competitive world of the South East Asian Tiger economies, Malaysia will do its utmost to avoid being seen as the nuclear energy laggard.

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Paul French: paul@accessasia.co.uk

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Katherine Steiner-Dicks: steinercommunications@yahoo.co.uk